A Lifelong Career
by Fraye
Summary: Following the defeat of Andross on Venom, Star Fox returns to Corneria to be offered positions that they could work in for the rest of their lives. The team accepts, but Fox is left unsettled by the idea. In the coming months, he only learns how much he loved the sky and how much he would give to have it back. Fox/Wolf eventually, Alternate 64 ending. R&R please.
1. In the Coming Months (Prologue)

_Author's Note: I haven't written anything here in quite some time, and I don't know how regularly I'll add things in, but I'm pushing a bit back into writing. I'm currently in my second year of college and starting here got me much more into fiction writing and I branched away from fanfiction. Eventually, I got busy and stopped writing altogether because I couldn't allot the time for it and when I could, I wasn't inspired._

 _I'm going back to my roots, more or less, and I'm gonna start making contributions here again in the flavor of whatever I'm inspired to do. This, more or less, is gonna be a piece centered around Fox and Wolf and discovering a means for the beginning of something more affectionate, I'm gonna make it more lasting and chapter-based, but I'll update it as I'm able. Also, Post-Star Fox 64 and such, even though I love Assault._

–

As I returned to the ship, I couldn't help but turn to look back at the dark expanse of space that circled Venom. We had won, somehow, and save the few scratches I had sustained from being jolted about in the Arwing, I was fine. . . well, fine enough. Each time I looked out there, I looked for a sign that he was there, that he was real, and I couldn't find it, he just wasn't there and I don't know where he could have gone.

The comm had gone silent as we returned to the ship, everyone anxious and excited even though the only thing left was to return to Corneria. We were to tell the General that we won. We were to tell the General that we had flown away from Venom carrying our pride and the will of the galaxy on our shoulders. Knowing Pepper, he was ready to see us all come home.

"Peppy."

"Yeah, Fox?"

I let it hang in silence for a few seconds, "I'll ask you when we dock."

"Okay."

We pulled the ships into the Great Fox, and the ship shook a bit as it turned and set course for Corneria. ROB already knew where we were going. I released the hatch and pushed upwards, the angled glass peeling away and giving me the first breath of real air I'd had since we hit the airfields miles outside of Venom's stratosphere. Peppy, Slippy, and Falco each came from their Arwings as well, and Slippy and Falco looked towards me for a second before they decided to give us the privacy. Peppy walked over, looking at least a little bit concerned for me.

"What's going on, Fox?"

"When you flew out to Venom the first time, when you had to leave, what happened?"

Peppy stood there, perplexed, but he had told the story enough times that he had no issue parting with the words again, "Your dad was flying point, Pigma and I to the rear. We weren't expecting enemy fire, we were just scouting. Pigma let loose all of the sudden on your dad, he didn't have time to react, and the wings went out. Your dad's ship crashed into Venom's surface, and all your dad had time to do was tell me to get out of there."

"He just crashed?"

"He wouldn't have survived the crash, Fox. His comm link went dead the moment he made impact, that means the core systems were breached in the crash. At best, he would've died on impact, at worst, he would've been trapped in the wreckage of his ship until he suffocated or bled out," Peppy's voice was stern. He could hear the ghosts that haunted my eyes catching the tip of my tongue.

"I saw him, Peppy," I said, and Peppy's eyes sunk for a second.

"When we're on the brink of death, we sometimes see angels that try to decide our fate."

I paused and looked at the hare, trying to figure out what he meant, "He led me out of that base, he helped me, he made sure I didn't die after I saw it through to the end. Peppy-"

"Fox, no-"

"Peppy-"

"No!" and the hare was left balling his fists as he looked back at me. I didn't see it before, but I caught the telling shimmer or tears. Peppy was crying, "No, Fox, he died on Venom. The mantle fell on you because you shine as bright as him, but don't bring him back from the dead just to feel better. We have to move on. If he survived that impact, God knows what Andross would've done to him."

"Peppy . . ." and I didn't know what else to say. I was on the verge of crying too, of losing it, and the older man stepped away from me.

Once he looked back, he said simply, "You have a guardian angel, Fox, be happy that he's so eager to show you he cares."

I paused again, letting Peppy walk away as I stood there, feeling the first tear stream along my cheek before I started my way into the corridor. I could find my room, I could go there and sulk, but I knew Falco and Slippy were waiting to see the two of us and to celebrate, and Peppy seemed to know it too as he passed by his room with a certain determination. I kept walking too, past his and then my own as we approached the bridge. Sure enough, Falco and Slippy were waiting, hands on the railing as the glass gave us a view into that dark abyss sprawling out as far as the eye could see.

"We did it," I murmured, as I placed my own hands on the rail. I didn't dare look towards Falco or Slippy, for fear that there were still tears clinging to my eyes. I was the leader, even if Falco didn't see me as one, and I had to seem strong. I didn't even sniffle, and the fur helped hide the stream that the two or so tears had marked out on my face.

"Hell of a ride," Falco said.

"Yeah, what do you think is waiting for us back on Corneria?" Slippy chimed.

"I don't know." I really didn't, but I had some ideas, "Probably a parade, something huge. I think every planet will celebrate when they get the news. . . ROB, can you broadcast from our ship to all planets we pass the news of our victory at Venom?"

"Any specifications?" echoed back from his comm.

"No, just tell them that Star Fox is returning to Corneria following their victory at Venom. Keep it simple."

" _Star Fox is returning to Corneria following their victory at Venom."_ echoed back at him. "Is this acceptable, Fox?"

"Yes."

"I'll begin broadcast immediately."

The faint hum of it hit their communicators immediately, and I muted his from the native frequency as I looked over towards Falco, but Falco spoke first, "There's a lot of people out there that wouldn't believe what happened there on Venom. Whether you succeeded or not, Pepper would've called you a hero for that stunt you pulled." He paused a second, "Good job, Fox."

They watched the stars go by for a little before I found my words again, "Thank you, all of you," I said, turning and looking between them. With the exception of Peppy, we were all early 20's, young men going to war. Slippy looked how we all felt—a basketcase. We weren't ready for war, but war was ready for us, and we took the call.

The words fell on silence, not for it being awkward, but because we were all reflecting on it. Hordes of enemies flying at them, trying to shoot us down. Sometimes they had to pull out before they went down in flames, and they barely made it out alive those times. I had seen my life flash in a spark of fire a thousand times, premonitions of death that I didn't get to experience, thankfully.

The heavy thought on my mind, though, was my father, and I stared out into the dark abyss,eyes alert and ears perked as I awaited any sign. Sometimes a planet would drift by, and we could see the night-kissed ones light up as we reached range. Someone was partying at least, and as I grew bored with the silence and the searching, I pushed off the bar and walked away, back to my room. We didn't celebrate, we were just in awe at the fact that we succeeded, which I guess makes sense. Falco looks so happy, Slippy terrified, and Peppy somber. I was. . . confused.

I pushed the button to the right of my door, the metal sliding aside before I stepped within. I didn't bother locking it behind me, no one would bother me while I was in there since we all had our own things to think about. I sat myself on my bed, face crumpled in my hands and just sorta sighed. It was supposed to be exciting, right?

The next thing I knew, I was being jolted awake by a knock on my door, I hadn't even laid down to fall asleep but I was tired as all hell. I turned a little, trying to figure out what was going on before I stepped towards the door, opening it. Falco was at the other side, "We're here," he said, then started his way down towards the bay. My comm was lit up and freaking out, but I had muted it earlier to avoid the noise from the broadcast. With a slight stretch, I started my way out of the Great Fox like everyone else.

As we met the door, the bay opening to let us out, we were met by a massive crowd of people, cheers and fanfare. I blinked for a second at the sudden intrusion of light, but there was a mass nearing a thousand people surrounding the path to the tower. "What the hell?" I muttered, starting my way down as my team flanked me. Trumpeters lined the path, lined further by security that kept the people back as they played us down the line. Some part of it brought the pep back, I felt my chest puffing out with pride as I stood taller and walked the line. I could feel that confidence and certainty growing to my sides, Falco turning and waving and Peppy gaining a bit more distinct of a smile.

Once we reached the door, we were within and the echoes of the cheers behind were the distinct memory of what had happened. The elevator up took us further and further from them before we were met with a line of military officials giving us the same fanfare as we were guided in a walk to Pepper's desk at the end of the path. Somewhere in the mix of officials, I spotted Bill, and I smiled just a bit wider knowing we had helped him make it through the fire on Katina. That was just another theater in this war, but that, and chasing Katt in the skies above Zoness were times we got to see old friends.

"Star Fox." It was Pepper, we had made it to his desk and I turned myself towards the General. "It is with great honor that I am able to offer you all the comfort you deserve following such an alarming war. The military has agreed to give you full pay for the war as acting generals of the Cornerian fleet. Additionally, we have some other formalities and awards and ceremonies to undergo in the coming days." He paused, and he looked at us. "We're also hoping to offer you a position in the Cornerian military of some form or fashion—each of you."

"But, sir, we're mercenaries. We prefer our own way," I said, and I was firm in it, but Pepper continued on as if I hadn't said a word. He expected it, so he most likely made his offer too tough to pass down.

"Formerly, Andross had been at the head of the Cornerian Academy, but that position has been vacant since his removal and it has been led by department. We are instituting a new department, and some of those departments have become vacant in terms of leadership. Rather than promote within, we have opted to offer those positions to each of you." I flinched. The Academy only gave teaching positions to people that had been in the field for decades, and its leading positions were given to those that had a foot in the grave after a few decades more. To give those positions to us. . . "To give those positions to you is the highest honor we can bestow upon you." I felt my tongue catch in my throat as I tried to swallow air, but I made no protest.

"Falco Lombardi, you are considered a flying ace in your team, and as such, we are looking to place you in the Flight Academy. Slippy Toad, you are the team's engineer and we will be placing you in the Engineering Academy—additionally, we will be funding the research that you had requested prior to your leave from Corneria and you will be able to work alongside your father. Peppy Hare, we are placing you in charge of the Introduction Program, in charge of capturing and educating the youngest students we have and to guarantee their success at the academy."

Finally, he turned towards me, "Fox McCloud, it is for you that we are implementing a new department. In war, a lot of difficult decisions must be made, and those decisions fall to a capable leader. You will be taking charge of a new Young Leaders program alongside a handful of other faculty from other departments until we can properly staff this department. Your program will be unique in that it will select particular students from each department, and you will help develop teams, like your own, and create ace squads with developed leaders."

I swallowed again, but it seemed as if Pepper were nearing the end of his speech. "Of course, I expect this to be difficult to decide upon, so I'll allow you all until the end of the week to decide on whether or not you want to accept these positions and you will start immediately following your acceptance," he said.

The silence didn't last long, Slippy breaking it with a firm, "I accept," and I turned towards him. Part of me screamed at myself to refuse, to just say no, but Slippy's acceptance was soon echoed by Peppy's. I found some sort of solace in Falco's eyes for a moment, before I found the contemplation beneath them. Finally, I stated my own acceptance, and Falco quickly echoed with his own.

"Very well," he said, and I felt sick, "You will all be able to begin tomorrow and I'll hold your awards ceremonies as an academy-wide celebration. We will present each of you as new faculty. You'll get to meet some of your students. If you'll allow me, I'll get the papers with all the information on your awards and what else will be happening in the next few days."

Once I received mine, I gawked at the number of 0's in the check that we'd be receiving, and just as much at our pay, but that still didn't sit quite right with me. I accepted because there was no point in going back without my team, but the world didn't need us without a war, so we could step back and relax, I suppose.

A few seconds later, I saw a particular award that was sitting in the last, "A statue?"

"Yes," he said, "We wanted to honor you in particular, Fox, not just for your actions, but also for the significance behind those actions."

"What do you mean?"

"We'll be erecting two statues, one with the team as a whole, and an additional one to honor you in particular. The statue that honors you in particular has actually already been completed and it will be present in the ceremony tomorrow. There's a photo in the back of the folder there . . ." as Pepper continued talking, I flipped through the pages and eventually found the picture. Dad. "Ahh, yes, there it is. See, we wanted to erect a statue in memory of James, but additionally, to honor you. It has the two of you, back to back. The base of the statue also has 3 pieces of writing as well. One for each of you, then one for the two of you together."

I wasn't interested in the individual pieces, and I quickly found the duo piece.

'Due to suspicious activity on Venom, James McCloud was sent to investigate and determine the nature of the situation with Andross. When he discovered it had taken a turn for the worse and Andross was alive, he determined to defeat the scientist. Rather, he was betrayed by one of his own squad, Pigma Dengar, and shot down. Peppy Hare returned with the news, and after some months of grooming, Peppy stepped in to advise a new team led by James' son, Fox. Fox was determined to avenge his father's legacy and flew across the galaxy in a war that consumed the galaxy and liberated planet after planet. Finally, he reached Venom and flew the skies his father did and was able to see the end to Andross.'

"What if we had failed?" Fox asked.

"It's only a few words and they weren't placed until we knew for sure, but we received word from ROB once your ship emerged on Venom and we finished the statue right away."

"Thank you," I said, and I glanced towards Peppy. The hare was peering through his own folder, but the words hadn't escaped him, and he saw that same shimmer as a tear slipped down the old hare's face. We had something to remember Dad by.

–

 _Author's Note: Retconned a bit on 64's ending, but with good reason for pushing towards the rest of the story. I initially considered this post Assault, but post 64 made more sense, since it fell in line with the fact that I wanted to look at Star Fox members moving into retirement prematurely (maybe not so much for Peppy, but still). This is a prologue, of sorts, but not a very good one for the direction the story will be taking. Since this took me a night to get through, I'm gonna say that the idea has me pretty inspired and it shouldn't be too long to get to the main part._


	2. 2 Years, Elevating Jinx

_Author's Note: The first portion acted as a prologue and a bit of a way or me to get some rust off. More or less, I'm looking to jump a bit in time and explore where this route took Fox and what happens as a result of it and all that, so expect the chapters to be significantly longer and all that. Thanks for reading!_

–

I'm worried that two years ago, I made one of the worst decisions of my life. The ceremony went fantastic, I loved my job, I loved the experience and that all shocked me at first, but I enjoyed it. I wanted to come back each day. I started with 12 students and only a handful of other faculty. I quickly learned that I adored one of the faculty: Fara. One of my students rose above and beyond her rank and station so soon after she came to my class, her nickname was Jinx and she absolutely belonged to be there.

Jinx was a charity case as far as the school was concerned. She lived in a household that couldn't afford to put her through primary school, and she was offered a full scholarship to the Academy in part of a circuit to bring impoverished youth into the schools. She was born on Katina, she lived there until she was about to turn 8 before the Cornerian military came through and discovered her in the crowds. She hasn't seen her family since she started at school, but she hasn't given in. I admire her.

* * *

 **2 months in.**

 _I slipped into the door to my office and let out a soft sigh of contentment. The comm was silent, the office was all to my own, and I needed just a second to catch my breath. A student had come out of each program that my comrades had gone to with one young officer in training being poised to take a further step up as a leader, meant to exemplify all of the programs in one. Their names swam in my head a bit. From the officer corps, there was Erin, James, and Ferris. From the Flight Academy, there was Jinx, Devon, and Norah. From the Engineering Program, there was Ashley, Annie, and Victoria. From the Introduction Program, we received Thomas, Gabriel, and Sarah. There were students from each of my comrades that were under my wing._

 _In the office, it was easy to maneuver, and I stepped to my desk. Each student had full portfolios, like military personnel, and I found myself peering through them from time to time. I was surprised when all of the students from the Engineering Program were girls, when the program had been dominated by boys when I'd been here at school. The officer program had evolved too, but the Flight Academy was interesting too. Overall, they were showing higher representation of women, something that wasn't too common from the Cornerian military, but it was oddly nice._

 _The door opened a few seconds later and a soft voice hit the room, "Mr. McCloud," she paused, "Fox. The students are done with their break in a few minutes, did you want me to start with flight instruction for them to give you some more time?"_

 _I turned towards her, the image that I always found myself astonished by, "Fara," I said. I had a picture on my desk, the wedding picture of my Mom and Dad, it was in an old trunk of my father's things that I finally got the nerve to look through. She looked so much like my mom, and I found myself blushing any time I saw her, but I should be professional, "Yes, that sounds fine," I murmured, "Start them with target practice. Help them adapt to the new targeting system that Slippy is implementing into the Arwings."_

 _She nodded, "Of course, Fox," and she smiled before she stepped out the door. Fara was one of the leading instructors in the Flight Academy and she was responsible for bringing the Arwing to common use. She tested it, she was the first one to ever fly it and she worked out the kinks and ensured it was battle ready for us to go into war in them, and she showed that she wasn't just a crash-test dummy every time she got behind the wheel of the Arwing. She was impressive._

 _I turned back to the portfolio. Jinx was a young tabby cat, she reminded me in some ways of Katt, but she was borderline flunking out of school when she had entered my program. She had risen well above what her scores hinted she was capable of which showed that she was mediocre in tactics and even in flight, her chosen discipline. When she got into the cockpit, she pulled maneuvers in that craft that I'd never seen before. Her real name was Stephanie, but she was called Jinx due to a technique that she used to enter the Flight Academy—shadowing. She used the shadow of one of her squad mates to ambush the enemy team from below. By the end of the simulation, her team hadn't lost a ship and she had comfortably taken down each of them. It was this technique that kept her there even when her scores hovered below acceptance, and that technique that got her greenlighted for this program._

 _I pressed the comm, the light projecting upwards before I spoke, "General Pepper, please," and it took a moment before I heard it connect._

" _Fox. Is there a reason you're contacting me right now?" Pepper was curt, but professional. He was a tired dog of war and he was still wary, to some extent, of my commitment. He had sent Fara, his ace, to my program and he wanted to see results. She was the only instructor that was committed full time to the program of the instructors brought over. An engineering instructor was brought over as well, Ben, but he was only here in the afternoons. I hardly saw him and he never socialized with me between classes, Fara always made sure to stop in when she had a moment._

" _Yes, it's about Jinx."_

" _Is she not cut out for the program?" I winced, he assumed that her scores meant she wasn't capable. He was expecting her to end up flunking out if he went straight there._

" _Not exactly, sir," I said back, "I was hoping to make a recommendation for her."_

" _Oh?" he seemed slightly surprised, but his eyes narrowed in the faint glimmer of the comm, "You're still a new member of our faculty, Fox, I can only carry your recommendations so far. Additionally, Jinx is in danger of losing her position-"_

" _She's superb. I've never seen a pilot as gifted as her, nor a tactician. This portfolio includes the footage of her entrance exam and that shadowing technique is so much smaller than what I've seen from her. How are these scores obtained, sir?" I knew, though, I had received scores as well. I dropped out of the academy, I turned and taught Falco how to fly and I got caught in the web of that war. I was an ace in school, but I had to leave to acknowledge my own life. If I hadn't left, I wouldn't have amounted to anything that would ever have shown up on Pepper's radar._

" _Each student is given standardized assessments. They're taught maneuvers and they're expected to execute them in testing environments given the conditions that those maneuvers would be applicable. When expected to barrel roll, she turned her wing and flew between fire. When expected to shuttle loop, she turned horizontally instead of vertically. She doesn't follow accepted technique."_

" _Sir, I'll forward the video footage of her performance in the environment for this group. She hasn't been restricted by standardized assessments and she's developed maneuvers and tactics that deserve implementation in the military. Please, look over the footage and make some consideration."_

 _He narrowed his eyes once more before he gave a nod, "Of course, Fox, I'll review the footage that you send to me. I'll bear your recommendation in mind, as well, but what was it for specifically?"_

" _I believe she should be in the Officer Corps."_

" _Very well, Fox. At the very least, I will guarantee that she continues to have a placement in the academy. If the footage is substantial enough, I'll have it reviewed by the board and we'll determine her eligibility." The board consisted of my team and some others, but we were expected to be critical and honest. I couldn't push them to vote one way when there were other people there that knew the truth and knew what to vote. I had to convince everyone fairly._

" _Thank you, sir." The comm link went dead, and I turned towards the door before stepping back out to take part in instruction._

* * *

The Academy trusted me in a position of power, but my word didn't tend to get far. Shortly after I started trying to change the course of the students there with my voice, I saw my past start to slip away. I was glad any time that it did, though, and there was some whispers of Jinx's capabilities. She was starting to garner some respect from her fellow students, but I heard it from the teachers too.

Just a week or so after, some of her guerrilla tactics started to appear in application in the Flight Academy. Students were discouraged, but even without the formal lesson, they were starting to mimic her. I congratulated her on it whenever I heard something new.

* * *

 **5 months in.**

 _There was a ceremony to my father that was to occur, and Jinx's recommendation had gone through far enough that we were to meet as a board and to determine whether or not she was worth the step into the Officer's program. Jinx herself wasn't even aware I'd made the recommendation. I was so worried that she might not even make it this far, that I left it be and I just want to see if she can make it._

 _We arrived in the atrium, halls pointed towards each of the departments and their constituents. In the center was a massive cube covered in red velvet cloth. Pepper stepped up to the stand, and as I looked around, I realized a great number of students had gathered for this ceremony. The atrium had so much cover that it was hard to tell how many people were there until you were in the center, and I found myself turning as the old dog began to speak._

" _We're all here in further recognition of James Senior and Junior," and I found myself flinch again. I turned towards him, fire in my eyes out of the emotions that flared at being called James. That wasn't my name, I wasn't James McCloud, I would never be James McCloud._

" _Sir, that's not my name-"_

 _He continued as if he hadn't heard me, which, I had to stop too. I bit back a few words as he continued speaking, "Here we are placing an icon of the war, the ship that allowed James Junior to enter Venom's airspace and defeat Andross." As the words slipped from his lips, I felt my stomach lurch. My Arwing, my father's Arwing, my memories. . . they were trapped in a case of glass. It took everything in my soul to not scream, but the folder in my hand, her future, kept me there for a second. I had to contain myself and that was all that kept me contained in those moments. I couldn't show some immense outburst and hurt her future because I'd made myself out to be deranged. I was a professional now._

 _I caught myself tuning back into Pepper's speech as he reached the tail end, "-unveiling the ship as an icon to a successful past and to what can be produced in the efforts of the Academy." Pepper gestured to me, and towards the cloth. I stepped forwards, following those steps that Pepper had taken to the stand and I felt sick, it felt wrong, but I grabbed the cloth and revealed a part of my soul to the world. I stared at it, not turning to see the crowd's response, not smiling, not waving, but instead I let out a soft sniffle as I stifled the tears that were coming to me. I had been taught to wear gloves in the Academy, there was so much glass and so many displays. I set my hand on the glass for a second before I steeled myself and turned._

" _Thank you everyone!" Pepper shouted to the crowd, "You can all return to your studies." It was then that I realized the other members had begun to appear: Slippy and Beltino; Falco and a young peahen, Rose; Peppy and an old marmot, Betty; myself and Fara; and several trustees and various officers I'd never seen before. Pepper gestured towards the Flight Academy and we took an elevator soon after we reached its complex. We reached a meeting room shortly after we exited the elevator. Each of us stepped in and set with our respective department member. I looked to Peppy and was met with a smile, but the glances I took towards Falco and Slippy were met with a fond nod, but I could feel that we were drifting apart._

 _Pepper stayed standing, and once everyone had reached their seats, he smiled and turned towards the screen, "File on Stephanie Perot." The screen illuminated as an image appeared in the top left corner. Her scores were on the screen, her personal record, her performance, everything that we needed to know about her was suddenly before us. He glanced towards me after a moment, "Fox, if you would like to come up, you can speak."_

 _I cleared my throat and stood, before I gestured Fara to stand as well. I needed Fara to be up there. She grabbed my hand a moment as she stood up, a reaffirming squeeze, but it looked like a quick brush. She let go and walked in stride with me as I stepped to the front of the room, clutching her supplemental information like a lifeline in my hand. "For the purpose of this presentation, I would like to respect Stephanie and refer to her by the name she has earned in her time in the academy: Jinx." I cleared my throat a second, Fara looking at me expectantly._

" _Stephanie Perot's personal history, please." The screen shifted towards some information regarding her past schooling, her home life, and other such circumstance. "Each of you have received Jinx's file and have likely reflected on her assessment scores and other such indicators of capability in terms of how you wanted to vote on her in this nomination. I hope to explain away her low test scores and demonstrate how she has gone above and beyond."_

 _I paused again, I needed water. There was a cooler to the side of the room, and I stepped over to retrieve some. As I was getting water, I could feel eyes on me as I continued, despite not having the material in front of me. "Jinx was raised in an abusive household. She didn't receive any education until she had turned 8 and arrived at the academy. Due to the fact that she was expected to be behind her classmates, she was placed in remedial courses. She excelled in these courses due to their pace, and it was quickly learned that Jinx was a self-teaching student. As she was placed in higher levels, she was expected to demonstrate material she had learned that day and she wasn't able to do that, and as she reached specializations, this only seemed to worsen. She is not a typical student, and her scores reflect her inability to learn like the other students, but," I said, pausing for a second to take a drink as I felt some of the anxiety slip away and fire catch to my words, "She is an immensely talented student."_

" _Here, I have a clip that, as you note, is time stamped for two Mondays ago. As the Engineering Department is aware, this is the day that the Arwings in our department were replaced for a new iteration."_

 _I stepped back to the screen and pressed a button on my comm, "Project Clip 0153." The screen was replaced with footage of the students getting into the Arwings. They went in groups of 4, modeling after the Star Fox team. As it began, I started to speak over it to point out certain things, "As you know, Ferris leads the squadron Jinx is a part of along with Annie and Thomas. Ferris and Jinx, together, are flying point in an atypical formation," he said, gesturing towards the screen._

 _In the comm relays on the screen, Jinx distinctly says, "Thomas, catch me," and her Arwing shifts. Slippy had implemented the walker mode, and Thomas swings forward and catches her walker. She quickly anchors herself to the Arwing above and engages her rocket boosts._

" _This exercise was a capture the flag style game. As you can see, their team has left no defense but Annie and Ferris are no longer following. They've stationed themselves at the midpoint, and you can see that there's very little cover. Jinx has opted to overcome this with sheer speed and tactics," he said, and as Thomas and her were to be intercepted, she removed her anchor. Thomas Arwing suddenly veered upwards, dodging the blasts as she was on the ground, offering herself a great deal more cover than was available in the air. She had already infiltrated their base down to their flag, and was turning to discover that the other team had taken walker forms as well._

" _You'll note that it's 3v1 here, Thomas has fallen back to support his team in any attack on their flag while Jinx handles the problem. Watch here," he said, gesturing towards her walker. It partially shifted back to the Arwing form, stopping mid shift as it was left lower to the ground. It suddenly bolted forwards, vaulting through the laser blasts from the other team before she utilized her lower center of gravity to take on of the legs out on the enemy walker, and immediately pushed through. Using her partial shift, she slipped back to the Arwing form and took advantage of the few extra seconds from that partial shift to make it back to her team and her base._

" _As you can see, Slippy has designed for a land and a sky form of the Arwing. This allows for combat in both land and air, but there are distinct steps between land and sky forms. Without having ever used walker forms before, she determined her best bet was to opt for a partial version in an attempt to break through, and she succeeded cleanly. This is not the only indication of her talent."_

 _Fara broke into the conversation as the video clip ended, "Jinx was placed into the Flight Academy due to my recommendation. She wasn't passing, I was worried she wouldn't be able to cut it, but she constantly showed how amazing she could be when we had dog fights, something that was purely instinctual. She's done things I can't even begin to imagine," she said, and she paused before she looked at me, "Fox's recommendation is shared by the entire department and he put it forth because we believe it's the best chance of it being taken seriously. I am certain," she said, before here eyes landed on Falco and Rose, "That she will be more than capable in the officer program."_

 _Fara paused and I resumed playing clips, again and again demonstrating moments of pure ingenuity that not only showed that Jinx was incredible in the vehicle, but that she was more than those scores said. After the final clip played, I found that my hands were on the table. I was still shaken, to some extent, by the dedication, but I was doing okay, I could do this. "Is there any questions?"_

 _It was met with silence, and Pepper nodded a few moments later, "I would like to bring this to a vote now that Fox has made his case."_

 _The vote was unanimously in her favor with the exception of a handful of the trustees. Fara smiled, and I knew in that moment that she had something to do with the way the vote turned out._

* * *

I wanted to have a positive effect while working here, I wanted to make sure that I set people out on the course that they deserved to be on. I was glad I gave Jinx that opportunity. I still hadn't even thought to tel her that she had been recommended and the officers stormed her dorm one night to congratulate her. She cried she was so excited and she was given an officer's uniform.

Soon after her promotion, she started to take more and more of a leadership role in her team, an eventually, it was clear that she was the leader, not Ferris. That wasn't a bad thing she just happened to rise to the occasion.

* * *

 **8 months in.**

 _It only gets busier. I miss going out to teach lessons, but the paperwork from Pepper has become too much. He wants each of these students to come out of the program like Jinx had, promoted from their rank and file into a higher level in the military. He wanted each of them pushed, but while they were all impressive in their own regards, Jinx received a recommendation because she was so much more than her portfolio led me to believe. The military had documented well the capabilities of the other students and they only periodically met them. Fara was doing her best to push them, but I don't know if any of the other students should be recommended._

 _There was a knock at my door and I turned to look towards it, "Come in!" I said, the room just soundproofed enough to force me to be firm with my voice. The door opened soon after and Fara stepped in, closing the door behind her._

" _The students are leaving for the day to go back to the dormitories," she said. She smiled. Her hands were held behind her back, and she stepped closer to my desk for a moment before she revealed what she was holding behind her back. It was a carnation and a card, the carnation a strange golden orange that glistened in the light. It was synthetic, but it was pretty, "Jinx got this to thank you," she said, "She just finished her first exam in the officer's program. She's going to be able to go into active service by the end of next year, she'll be graduating a year earlier than anticipated. It was a good thing you did."_

 _I found myself smiling a bit as I looked at the carnation a second more. I set it in front of the portrait of my father and mother before I turned to the card and opened it._

–

 _Mr. McCloud_

 _I heard that you fought to get me into the officer's program, digging deep into my personal files and doing anything you could. I know Ms. Phoenix played her part too, and I just wanted to thank you both for putting so much confidence in me. I don't know if I would've gotten there if you hadn't recommended me._

 _Stephanie_

–

 _I thumbed at the card a moment before I turned back towards Fara. She was smiling, she may have read the card, but it appeared that she was holding a card of her own. Once I looked a little closer, I realized she had a carnation in her hair. . . did she put that there just now? She must've gotten thanks as well, in her own way. "Listen, Fox," she said, as she realized I was done, "That's not the only reason I wanted to come in here."_

" _What is it, Fara?"_

" _I wanted to get you out of your office. You've been boxed in here for the past few months. You made it out for Jinx's official transition into the officer's program, but I don't think you've been out much. Do you want to grab dinner with me?" she asked. I could hear the anxiety, and I knew that it meant more than just dinner to her._

 _My ears pressed to the top of my head for a second, the anxiety infectious before I caught my breath and courage and let out a soft exhale. "Sure. What'd you have in mind?" and the words rolled out so easily._

 _She reflected them with a smile, and she looked towards the door, "There's a little restaurant that overlooks the ocean. I made reservations this past week, just in case, but I figured I'd have to ask you sometime to actually know if you'd go. They're. . ." she checked her comm, whispering for the time, "In a little over an hour, sorry," she said, and she managed to return to the smile. She was pretty, she looked like Mom._

" _It's fine, Fara, I'll just grab my jacket, we can start our way over," I said, peering at the open folder before I closed it. In truth, I was nearly a week behind in the paperwork that Pepper had been giving me, and this date guaranteed that I'd be back over the weekend to finish up and try to catch up, but that was how careers were, right? You started and you never really stopped until you dropped dead or someone convinced you to retire before you dropped dead. I thumbed over the papers on my desk for a moment, setting them into a neat pile before I stepped towards the coat rack at the door, grabbing my flight jacket and pulling it back over my frame._

 _I still got looks now and then for wearing the flight jacket, for still wearing the uniform I wore as a mercenary even though the rest of my team had adopted the proper uniform for the Cornerian military, but the jacket was a warm reminder of what we went through. I looked at Fara for a moment, and there wasn't even the slightest hint of confusion in her eyes, she understood and always had. "Let's go," I said, and she smiled and nodded before we started our way out of the door._

 _At dinner, we laughed, we smiled, we got to know each other. When we returned to the Academy, I kissed her good night and we went our separate ways._

* * *

I didn't want to mix up the memories of the Academy with my personal memories. Every time I thought about the good times, I thought of them as their own entity, because if I ever associated something that I enjoyed with some part of the Academy, it felt like it was tainted. I knew I shouldn't be here, but I also realized I didn't quite know how to get out of this experience.

If I left now, though, it meant leaving Fara behind. She had been there for me even when I hadn't thought there was anyone left looking out for me. Falco and I came here without any real security net anymore, and he was fine. I don't know why I've struggled so much.

* * *

 **11 months in**

 _I stepped back into the office, the first time since we'd left for summer break. I didn't creep back in and try to do work, if I had to, I did it in my room and I stayed away. The paperwork was already neat, the students were to be back today and soon. I kept my jacket on, muted my comm, and stepped out of the room. Set at the front of the field was a single Arwing, and on the opposite side was a set of 13 Arwings, one set aside for Fara. The other instructors took care of other lessons, I didn't see them as much, but whenever we did Arwing work, it was Fara and sometimes me. We had actually picked up two new instructors that were supposed to be here this year. I wanted to be there more this year, too._

 _As the students came in, they all smiled and laughed as they saw me. It really had been a while since I'd done an Arwing drill, and I hadn't done a single one that I'd been in the cockpit since I've been hre. We had no new students for this year, this program needed to have at least one graduate to determine whether or not it would continue. I looked over them, and I realized I only vaguely recognized them by their true faces, only knowing them by the images I saw so frequently. I should know them, I should've been there with them for a full year at this point. It didn't work out that way._

" _As you all can see, there are 14 Arwings here. One for each of you, one for Ms. Phoenix, and one for myself. You haven't seen me fly for class yet, but bear in mind I haven't flown in nearly a year now. If you can't hand my ass to me," I said, some laughs trailing it, "Then we're gonna have to just push you harder this year. You'll be working cooperatively with your team to determine who can knock me out of the sky. Points will be awarded for the amount of damage you deal to my Arwing, for making the final shot. You can also get points for defeating each other, and that increases your odds of catching me, but keep in mind, Ms. Phoenix will be a lone pilot without a team on the opposing side as well. She's flown plenty and she will be quick to dispatch you to guarantee she takes the victory." I smiled a moment as I looked over them, "Everyone man your ships and good luck."_

 _I stepped towards my own Arwing, dragging a hand along the sleek metal of the ship. The plates were meshed well, the shape just a little more rounded than I remember it. "Pilot: Fox McCloud," I said, and my comm lit up before the Arwing responded, the latch popping and I was able to lift it and get into the cockpit. I was making myself a target. I started the comms, "Everyone, please set your ships to Training modes," he said, and he closed the link as he set his own, "Training System: Disabling Lasers." The Arwing sounded around me, shifting to the appropriate mode and my screen was lit with each of the other ships and their status. Eventually, each shifted to a check, affirming that they were set properly._

" _I will take off first, and once I take off, your ships will be restricted from take off for 10 seconds. Once those 10 seconds are up, you're free to begin in whatever fashion you deem necessary." I peered over the console, a lot of the buttons shifted and I knew I'd struggle getting it quite right. I started going through the pre-flight checklist: verify fuel, verify power, verify systems are nominal, engage G-Diffuser, engage thrusters, and take off. I felt myself lift with a slight lurch, and I turned my ship easily and started in the opposite direction. The blast door at the end of the room opened at my prompt, and I was out into the practice fields and I quickly navigated into the forest._

 _For my sanity, I shifted pretty quickly to walker mode as I dashed through the trees, thankfully not knocking a wing off in the process. I could hear commotion over the comms, and Fara had apparently disposed of an entire team immediately. Jinx's team was separating, they knew they couldn't take her on but all they had to do was take me down. The other team, Erin's, was still in the air and maneuvering with Fara. They didn't have the time to worry about what Jinx's team was doing, and they were forced to let them disengage, a sound military strategy for their preservation. I quickly heard Thomas' comm link go silent as well as Ferris', they had stayed and tried to outmaneuver Fara, it seems._

 _As far as I could tell, all that were left flying were: Fara, Jinx, Annie, Erin, Devon, Ashley, and Gabriel. Gabriel soon went down, his youth just enough of a crutch to give Fara the advantage, and soon after, I could hear two comm links go at once. Fara went down alongside Ashley, and all that was left was Jinx, Annie, Erin, and Devon. At this point, I found myself along the bank of a lake, and I knew that they were tracking me. I quickly retreated into the brush and saw a ship fly overhead, it had to be Annie's. Jinx was certain to be looking for me on the ground. Two ships appeared soon after Annie's and were pursuing her, but that seemed to be a mistake as both were hit cleanly soon after. The only comms left alive were Annie's and Jinx's._

" _Mr. McCloud," it came from my comm, "Hide and seek isn't very fun. There's only one team left," she said. It was Jinx._

" _You would appear to be the victors then, wouldn't you?"_

 _She laughed a bit, but the voice that replied was Ferris', "Sir, I'm certain that they would rather battle you in a dogfight than just end the drill here."_

 _Two voices of affirmation came, and I emerged back onto the shore of the lake. Within a moment, I returned to flying mode. As I returned to the sky, I could see the Arwings that were returning to our starting point, and in the sky as I emerged were Jinx and Annie. They weren't hiding, they sat easily in line with each other as they held their point in air. I sat there as well, unsure of how to proceed, but the shot from Annie that soon followed showed I had no choice but to engage._

 _I slipped into a barrel roll and immediately regretted it as I felt as if I would puke. My head shifted to the side a bit from the sheer momentum, but I managed to steady myself and keep my eyes forwards, but I'd lost Jinx in the moment. Annie was approaching as well, and I huffed a moment as I pressed the thrusters forwards again. I expected an ambush, like Jinx had used on the other team earlier, and I was right as fire came from below. I slammed into another barrel roll as I engaged the walker transformation. As I slipped out, I felt a crash in my descent and I used the attachments of the walker immediately and realized I'd attached myself to Jinx's ship. I just heard a "Shit! Annie, shoot, I don't care if you hit me," from her comm._

 _I fired on her immediately, but the moment had exposed me too. She pulled to the sky as I took my shots to put her out of commission, but Annie had responded immediately. Some of my shots were taken off course and my attachment was severed. I fell and was forced back into Arwing mode, but I saw the shuttle loop above. The fire hit me, and I could hear the soft ding as I reached my limits for training mode. The ship turned back towards the building and I heard cheering, and I couldn't help but smile. Their team had split up to guarantee the success of the mission and Jinx had split off to pursue me. Her direction with Annie, and Annie's lack of hesitation made that possible. They had grown._

 _As I landed, I turned back to see the two coming in to land. They hugged, and I felt a hand around my waist before I turned to find Fara was standing there by my side. I smiled a moment and she did too as we watched the winning team celebrate. We could review footage to figure out just how well they worked together._

* * *

I was so proud to see that Jinx had taken such strong leadership of her team, and when we reflected on the footage, I found out that Ferris and Thomas sacrificed their ships to shield Annie and Jinx. It hadn't been a split, it had been a vote of confidence. The comm noise also revealed the pure camaraderie in their team that was astonishing in a group that had hardly been together at all. It reminded me of being in Star Fox again.

My fingers drummed over the communicator. Sometimes I dreamed of just quitting then and there, opening a link with Pepper and telling him I was done and I would work directly in the military before I worked in an office. I didn't want to be in the military either, we were supposed to do things our own way. This year went so fast.

* * *

 **20 months in**

 _I stepped onto the stage. Each department was meant to speak on departmental honors, and, really, I only had one student graduating from my department so I just had to speak on her, to tell a tale on her behalf. I hated speaking, but I did it often enough I should just get over it._

" _Hi, everyone. I started this past year as the head of a new developmental program that's designed to foster and build a team relationship between groups of four members. My first squad will be departing on missions, led by Stephanie Perot. This squad is comprised of three members alongside Stephanie that will work in tandem with the Cornerian military and spend their last years at school learning practically. I would like, now, to have Stephanie stand to be recognized."_

 _She stood, folding her hands together and letting them sit in front of her. Her tail twitched, she looked frightened, but she was there. She wore an officer's uniform, pressed and clean. "You can sit, Jinx," I said, giving a soft smile towards her before I returned to the speech, "Stephanie entered the program as a wildcard recommendation by Fara Phoenix of the Flight Academy. In her time in the Leadership Program, she stepped up quickly and showed herself as innovative. She adapted immediately to new advancements of the Arwing and some of the tactics she has developed through natural intuition are being implemented in the Flight Academy as additional instruction."_

 _I paused a moment, and I looked across the crowd. There was a lot of people, families, friends, the graduates and such. I could feel something swell in me and it wasn't good. We were in the atrium, and positioned behind me was my Arwing. . . my dad's Arwing, and I knew if I looked behind me I would lose all composure I had in front of a crowd of people. My words felt stilted as they continued, but there were few left to give, "I would like to lead everyone in congratulating one of the developing leaders in this new day and age," and I smiled as I lead the crowd in applause. It took a lot, and a few seconds later, "Jinx, could you please come up to the stage," I said, and I turned to retrieve the award from my seat, not daring to look anywhere but there._

 _Without even looking at the Arwing, I knew it was there, and as I returned with the award to center stage, I realized a few tears were streaming down my face. I missed him. It had to look touching, they probably thought I was crying for Jinx. As she came onto stage, I handed her the award and shook her hand. After the photo was snapped, I wrapped my arms around her in a firm hug, "I'm proud of you," I said._

 _She murmured a, "Thanks," and I could feel her shake a little as the hug parted. She was crying too, she cared a lot. It made it look better, but as she walked off stage, I found myself quickly introducing the next speaker then excusing myself from the assembly._

 _I could hear the leaves crunching, someone was trying to find me. I had hidden myself on a bench under some trees in the back corner, and I was still losing it. No matter how much I tried to pull myself back together, I found myself slipping again. My eyes were red and I couldn't just fucking get it back together, and I shivered with frustration. The person that was searching for me appeared: Fara. She stepped over, her lips were open like she meant to say something but she must have seen what was going on. She knew I wasn't holding up well. She stepped over and I sat up expectantly, but she only wrapped me in a hug and held me close._

 _Out of pity or out of genuine compassion, she walked back with me. She stayed in my room with me while I talked about it, I talked about how hard it was to be here when my dad wasn't. I told her I saw him that day on Venom. I told her I'd had nightmares of losing him almost every single night since I'd seen him on Venom for the past 20 months She sat there a long time, she didn't pry deeper than I was willing to share, and she just held my hand and stared forwards. She told me she loved me, and in a bittersweet moment, we kissed and we made love for the first time that night._

* * *

There was a knock on my door and I turned towards the door. Only a few weeks had past, but I saw her almost every day since that night. Fara stepped in, and I looked up to her with a soft smile, but she didn't return it quite so quickly. "Fox, we need to talk about something," she said, and I couldn't tell what it was. "I want to know what you plan to do, I know you went to your old team and talked to them about leaving the Academy. You asked if they'd come with you," her lips were pursed, she looked upset, "You never asked me, Fox, but. . . I can understand why you would ask them over me. They were your team," she said, and the were cut me deep, but it was true, they didn't want to go.

"Fara," I said, and I looked at the other with a soft ease. I had yet to tell her I loved her, I wasn't sure, but I knew it was on her mind now and then. "I've never had as much fun in my time here as that drill we had at the beginning of this past year, where I flew against the students. I love being in the cockpit, and all I do here most days is move papers around and try to meet other people's expectations," I said, and I looked down for a moment, "I accepted this position because if I accepted, Falco would accept and he needed this and wanted this."

"And you didn't?" she asked, and she looked confused.

"No."

"But you've done great things with it. . ."

"Because even in a job I hate, I want to do everything I can to help," I said, and I looked at her a moment. She looked like something had changed drastically for her.

"Okay. . . What do you plan to do?"

"I think I need to leave," I said.

She looked at me a moment, and I knew that question was coming, "What about us? What about me, Fox?"

I closed my eyes a second, and I eventually stood. I gestured for her to sit in the chair, and she did after a few reluctant moments. I stood there for a second, I let her swivel a little in the chair, I let her look over the desk, "I want you to stay here and take over this program," I said.

"But what about us?" she asked, and she was on the verge of crying.

"I'll be back, we can try and figure something out, I don't know, but I need to do this, Fara."

She seemed at peace for a moment, but we both knew we were done. I could feel the lie that had just left my lips, that I would be back. I don't know if I'll ever make it back, I don't know if I'll ever see Fara again. She paused for a second, and thoughtfully looked down, but she looked back towards me after a few seconds.

"Tell me if you get it figured out," she murmured, "I'll stay here, but I'm not going to wait for you because I know there's a chance this is the end." She smiled after a moment, "Thank you, Fox."

"No, Fara, thank you," I said, and I leaned over onto the desk to grab the resignation letter that her hands rested so close to. I turned, I grabbed my jacket, the photograph, the card, and the carnation. Nothing else in here was personal, I could leave with none of it. Everything personal to me was in my room and in that Arwing in the atrium.

I pressed to my comm for a second, there was a person I hadn't yet contacted, and he was on Corneria on shore leave after jobs out of system. If I called him, I may be able to catch him before he gets too busy again, and I had some time to collect my things before I left the Academy.

"Hey."

–

 _Author's Note: So, this chapter is probably a bit on the long side for the average chapter, but expect something between the prologue and this for most chapters. I wanted to make a connection into the main bulk of the story that used his time in the Academy, but, unfortunately, that's not the focus of the story (or fortunately for people that aren't a fan of straight Fox). I would also like to thank everyone that's read, followed, favorited, and/or reviewed. It's nice to be getting some support, but We'll be moving into some level of plot and moving away from summary in this next chapter._


	3. Enter Star Wolf, Rightful Owner

_Author's Note: For the time being, I'm just more or less writing straight through and taking advantage of my break. I'm going back for classes in a little over a week, and I'm sectioning off chapters where it feels appropriate right now. Once I go back, I will slow down a little bit on updates, but I'm making sure that I get this through because I have very good ideas of where I want to take this. That does mean, too, that for the time being, I'll be updating relatively quickly._

–

The comm was silent as I walked, save the slight breathing I could hear on the other side. Finally, I got a response, "Who is this?" I sighed softly.

"I know you haven't forgotten me yet, Wolf," I said, and I found myself smiling a moment before I turned on the video function, my face projecting from the other's comm as I walked, "I want to ask for a job from you." The video function was quickly turned on from the other side, Wolf surely doing it just to look at me with that pure look of, 'What the actual fuck did you just say?' My expression didn't shift, I didn't even flinch.

"You're Cornerian Military, McCloud," he said, and he snorted a second, "What would possess the high and mighty Fox McCloud to ask for a job from me when he's easily gotten the cushiest job in our stars." His face turned to a sneer, and I lifted with my other hand the letter I held.

"I'm on my way to General Pepper's office as we speak to hand in my letter of resignation. I'm a mercenary and there's no place for a mercenary that's not a part of a team," I said. I felt the words sour in my mouth, because it was me admitting that I didn't have a team, "Look, you don't believe me, meet me somewhere," I said.

"I'll send you a location, McCloud. I'm bringing my team, though, I'm not dealing with any shit from you tonight." I knew it was gonna be some bullshit theatrics, but I just smiled and our comm connection went dead soon after. I found myself muttering some choice words about him under my breath, but I didn't even think about them before they were free. I didn't like Wolf, I didn't approve of Wolf's way of working. I could make it work.

Just a little bit further and I arrived at General Pepper's office, but he wasn't in. It was probably for the best as I didn't want to face him after I was spitting on his opportunity, but everything was detailed in the letter alongside my request for Fara to take over the department. This had to work.

I returned to the dormitories, and I had already packed all of my stuff. I pulled the bags out from under my bed and placed the few other items I had grabbed into them, nestling the memories I could carry into the bag with a tender touch. I didn't dare press hard enough to displace one of the petals, and I appreciated that Jinx had been one of the students I actually got to meet in my time here. I thumbed over the card for a second before I placed it and the wedding portrait in it as well.

As I left the dorm, I knew there was one more place I'd have to pass through before I could leave these grounds, and I found myself pausing as I arrived in the atrium again. Rather than head for the exit and back to society, back from this boxed-in lifestyle that I had taken on in the past two years, I found myself drawn to the center. As I approached the glass box, I lowered to my knees for a second as I knelt before the display. "I'm sorry," I said, and it was the best I could muster in those moments before I lowered myself closer to the ground. My hands clasped, and I prayed, but I don't know what I was praying for or who I was praying to, but a wish for the two years to have never happened and to still have my team wasn't the type of wish I should be making.

I stood, I looked over the grounds, and I returned back to that Arwing all over again. I had asked for it to be removed from the case at the beginning of the summer, asked it to be returned to me, but Pepper had refused. That ship was a piece of history and history weighed higher than my own personal ideals. He offered me a ship to replace it, but I refused, because I knew deep in my heart I could never replace that ship. It had been salvaged from Venom before the Lylat Wars had begun, they sent out reconnaissance teams in an attempt to locate him. When they were fired on and Venom shook with the drums of war, Lylat was thrown into chaos. The ship had been returned and I was gifted it as my right, as his will, but I felt as if leaving it in the case betrayed not only my wishes, but his too.

I turned, pulling my flight jacket close to me and fixing the crimson scarf that I hooked onto my neck. As I reached the doors, I opened them and I realized that carrying bags with all my livelihood in them wasn't terribly practical, but it was the only choice. Two guards at the door nodded and smiled at me, but they didn't realize the implication of the two bags. Most instructors had a lot more to carry with them if they were to leave, having furniture and all sorts of things but I had spent my time in the stars and I learned to travel light.

The location arrived on my comm, and it seemed like Wolf knew that if I was serious, I was literally just gonna walk out of there with no plan. He was right, but it was a bar that was all of a two minute walk away. I made a bee line to it, cutting through the weaving path and back to the street. Each step felt like it was lightening the load on my heart, but I was still angry at the fact that that ship was sitting there, penned up in plain sight. It was a monument to my shame, to the fact that I had taken a job in the military and became a golden goose for them. All I did was speak and appear and make them look good but I couldn't even be allowed to teach because I had to do paperwork and set up a program that Pepper should have done in the first place.

When I got to the bar, I stepped in, and I knew that if it got ugly, I could just resort to using the blaster that had been supplied to me by the school. It had a few modes, but I left it at its default: to kill. There was no reason I would ever take that gun out unless I had a premeditated plan that involved another mode or if I needed it to kill someone. There was a small booth in the back corner, but as I went to step to it, one of the men at the door looked at me, "Can't bring your stuff in. No one's moving in here," he said, and he gestured toward the door.

I looked back at him, and I shook my head, "I didn't even plan on buying a drink, but if you let me go in with my things, I'll buy one for each of us," I said, and my voice rasped for a moment. He recognized me as I did.

"Oh, Mr. McCloud, I'm so sorry, of course. And thank you," and I was disturbed that my name let me do things like that, but I needed it. To be honest, I needed a drink.

Wolf wasn't here yet, he couldn't have been, the bar was too quiet and no one was fighting. I made my way to the bar, grabbing a couple beers. I gave one to the man at the door, and he was still red to his ears, then I set myself at my table and set a beer across from me. I took a drink, and I peered over the room. Wolf didn't seem like the type of person to be late, but we hadn't agreed on a time, so I suppose I'll just have to wait for him.

I took another drink, and I heard some commotion at the door. A group of at least 8 stepped in, and Wolf was at the front. I didn't flinch, I just looked across the bar and I'm sure Wolf could feel how drained and upset I was when he made eye contact with me. I saw his hand gesture towards them, for them to wait and do something else. They mingled, going to the bar and getting something to drink. They probably had songs of war to sing, but the booth was occupied with a man with nine years on me and he muttered something as he accidentally kicked one of my bags. He took a drink before he looked more directly at me, "How the hell did you get my comm link, McCloud?"

I looked back at him, and in the back of my head, I reminded myself this was a business deal. I could be professional, "The military has some records of you. I couldn't trace that comm if I tried, but I can at least get a hold of you. Of course, the clearance for that was well above my rank and file, Pepper's too, I'm sure," I said, but I looked at the bottle for a second, "I had to get a little crafty to get a hold of it, but, when my team said they didn't want to go back to being a team, I knew I had to get a hold of it somehow."

"Well, I'll just have to get a new comm," he said, and he muttered for a second as he took another drink. I matched him, and I could feel he was trying to figure out how to do this. "This is your shit, though," he said, letting out a small laugh, "You quit that job, you actually did it," he said, and the laugh only got louder, "But why the fuck would I offer a job to you? You're deranged."

"You know I'm a good pilot, Wolf."

His hand slammed on the table, "You've been trapped behind a desk teaching pups how to fly an Arwing. You're rusty and you've got no damn ship to speak of, pup. I know they put that thing in glass, it's on display for all the students to see but it's a grave to your fucking career as a mercenary, McCloud." I promised myself that no matter how riled up he got, I would keep my cool, but I could feel it grating. I could feel something in me let go, and that professionalism that I had tried to foster in the past 2 years had all started to slip down the drain.

I don't even remember making the motion, but I slammed my own hand on the table and I was in his face, "Don't you fucking think I know that, Wolf? I don't fucking belong behind a desk, I spent two years of my life in hell and I'm not fucking going back. If you're not gonna give me a job, I'll fucking find some other pilots and make my own damn team again, I don't care how good they are. I need to be in the fucking air," and I could feel my emotions frying, I could feel that I would cry soon, but I wasn't backing down. I could smell him, his breath, the entire air of superiority that he had over him. I hated it.

The next motion drew a gasp of surprise out of me, Wolf's hand at my throat as he slammed me back into my seat. His face followed his hand, never getting more than a few inches away, "I can't give you a job, McCloud, I can't do that. I'm not employing some goody-goody to fly and go on adventures. Not all of us get to be a mercenary that can choose from any job in the galaxy, and you fucking threw it away." His eyes narrowed, and for a second, all I could see was red.

Something in me snapped, people were looking, and as I went to throw a blow back, I felt hands on both of us as we were out on the street, my shit landing on me soon after. Wolf and I weren't done, and I grabbed my shit and threw it out of the main path of the street and into the alley, but the motion gave Wolf the opening. His hands were back on my throat, and we spun and struggled until we were trapped in the dark embrace of the alley. I realized that we weren't alone, but it was his crew, not someone that would actually stop it.

I couldn't overpower him, he had me against a wall, and I was coughing as I felt my windpipe press down. A familiar face was caught in the light from the streetlamp outside, Leon, and he approached Wolf. He handed Wolf something, I knew because the hand left my throat for a second and I could breathe. All I could see was his eye, it was too dark and I couldn't even fight him anymore. He was taller than me, and I found out what he had been handed a few seconds later as I felt a blade against my neck as he held me above the ground. "How does it feel, McCloud? This is what a real mercenary's life is like. You can lose it at any second, and the missions mean kill or be killed. Are you afraid of death, McCloud?"

I could feel it in my gut, some sort of rejection. I wasn't afraid, and I didn't shake. "I accepted death a long time ago, Wolf," I said, and I reflected on that moment for a second, "When I flew into Venom's core, I should've died and I wouldn't have questioned it for a moment if I did," and he held eye contact with me, "Every day I'm alive is borrowed time, but that time means nothing to me," and my eyes narrowed for a second before I found myself shouting at him, "If you're going to kill me, Wolf, just fucking kill me," and the shouting pressed my neck against the blade enough that I could feel blood slipping free, but not deep enough to sever anything vital, "I'd rather be dead here than ever go back to sitting behind a desk."

He snarled, I could feel his breath rolling over my face, he was looking over me, he was trying to figure out if I was telling the truth but we were in some sort of dark hell, he couldn't see my features, he could only hear my heartbeat and it didn't skip a beat, it was calm. I wanted to scream, I really wanted to, some part of me was telling me to get the fuck out, but that wasn't the part in control, I didn't care. The knife drew back from my neck, and I could breathe again as I fell to the ground. "Grab your shit McCloud, we're staying upstairs in this bar until we ship back out, tomorrow. We can discuss specifics when we get inside," and I could feel my heart ripping through my chest for a moment. I wasn't dead.

I grabbed my things from the entrance of the alley, and I followed Wolf closely, feeling his team tailing behind me. The face, appeared like a phantom over my shoulder as he leaned close and dragged his tongue through the blood on my neck, "Pity, I would've liked to see one of your team die after all these years," he said. It was Leon, and god damn was he a lot more terrifying than Wolf was. I resisted the urge to shudder.

"Not today," I said, and he gave an amused little snort.

"We still have some hours left."

He retreated from me after a few seconds and we were back inside. Wolf got a dirty look from the bouncer, but he was allowed back in without too much trouble. The same bouncer looked at my neck for a second and then back towards Wolf, but something in how I walked must've convinced him to just let it go. I knew that in that same crowd I was walking, Pigma could very well be among them, assuming he hadn't flaked another commander. I'd have to play nice with him in spite of what he had done, I'd have to bury my father's memory enough to be able to be here.

Wolf continued walking until he reached a set of stairs and he guided me up alongside his team, and there were a set of rooms at the top of the stairs. Wolf gestured me into one room and he closed the door behind him. There were only five rooms, Wolf probably planned to sleep alone after killing me and relish in that little victory, but I was sitting in that room and he took my bags and set them in the closet. There wasn't a table to speak of, just a cot and a lamp. He sat at the end of the bed, but I chose to stand for the time being. "We need to figure out pay and other stuff," he murmured, running his face over his hands. He hadn't planned this conversation, he had planned to kill me.

I lifted my hand to my neck, but I remembered the gloves that I quickly removed and placed in the pocket of my flight jacket. I lifted my hand once again, dragging it through the sticky fluid before I drew it to my tongue, tasting my own blood. A little deeper and I'd be dead, and I found myself looking towards him again. He continued talking, I just enjoyed that I didn't have to, "We provide enough for everyone that works with us to have the bare minimum to survive. You get a little bit of food, a little bit of water, and we maintain our station's power. There's a gym, there's other shit, we've built it to be comfortable. If you want more than to just survive, you need to go out on jobs. For jobs, money is split evenly between everyone on the job, it doesn't matter who's leading, they get the same cut. A little bit of the money is put back towards Sargasso, usually 25%."

He sat there for a second, trying to regain his train of thought, "We need to figure out a ship for you and other shit," and he ran his hands over his face once again. He was thinking, and he didn't seem to be too happy about what he was thinking about, "You're too good of a pilot to be shooting shit with a lot of the people in Sargasso. We have an open spot in our team, Andrew and Pigma aren't there anymore. If you can get a ship, you can fill it. It's something like half a million credits for a new Wolfen, though. We've modded ours to hell, but those were older models," he said, and he needed to stand. He stepped towards the window, opening it and letting in the humid summer air. He fished in his pockets, finding a pack of cigarettes before he lit one and took a drag. He offered one to me, and I took it without hesitation.

I took a drag before I chimed in, the rasp in my voice probably because of my windpipe almost getting crushed and sliced and all that other shit, "I have a ship, Wolf. My ship," and those words felt so much stronger coming from my lips than they had in my head. I wasn't convinced that I could get it back, the military would flip. "And I'll be damned if I'm going to let that ship sit in a display case."

"Do you have any fucking clue how hard it would be to get a hold of that ship, McCloud?" he said, turning towards me, and even though he gave me a moment, he couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it. I found myself smiling, though, partly out of the frustration and stupidity of it all.

"That ship was dragged up out of the Venomian ocean and restored and given to me. My father flew that ship and he gave it to me. Fuck the military," and I held that moment to my heart, "That ship is mine. It has a lot of memories forged in it and there's still mementos of mine and my father hidden in that cockpit. It's coming with me."

"If you want the military after you, be my guest. We already have a bounty, McCloud," he said, and he smiled as if he was proud of me for a second, "You'd be joining us with one already on your head, you know? And that's a government monument or some shit, you might rival my bounty with that."

"All the more reason to do it, right?" and I found myself smiling. I took another drag and blew rings from the window. Something about being there with Wolf made me want to try and be like him, to appease him. I didn't like what he did, but damn if I didn't want to be a badass and make sure that he at least respected me. I didn't care if I changed a little.

We sat there a little while longer, I had time before I could go back and do anything like that. A few drags later and I rubbed the flame out on the windowsill and tossed the butt out to the street below, in the same fashion Wolf had done, and we turned. When he sat on the end of the bed this time, I sat down as well. We had a few feet between us, but I turned and I tried a bit to talk, at least. I started with bad topics, of course, "Why didn't you kill me?"

"Easy prey's no fun, besides, you're a good addition. You have to be ready for that shit, though. I've seen a lot of men die and beg for their lives," he said, "I've never seen a man stare death in the face and taunt it," and he laughed a moment, "You're a fucked up pup, McCloud."

"I'm about to turn 21. You don't have to keep calling me a pup, Wolf."

"I'm about to turn 30. You'll always be a pup as long as I'm around." I felt heat catch my face. Wolf accepted I'd be around a little while. "If you make it to 21, expect a party. No better time to celebrate shitting on death's embrace than another year without meeting it. Especially since you'll be legally to do just about everything except collect Social Security, I might hire a stripper, if you don't piss me off that is," he said, and I saw a bit of a smile from him, "I've been dodging that bastard all my life." He turned back towards me, "What made you quit your job?"

I winced for a second, "I accepted the job because the only way that Falco would take it would be if I took it. He'd stick by me even if it fucked his life up, and I stuck with it because I was making a difference. I hated it, though. I was behind a desk, I didn't even get to fly to teach the students, eventually I just did paperworks and made press appearances on the military's behalf. I became some sort of trophy and there was nothing there redeeming it." I stopped, but I could feel that lie on my lips.

"You were with that one instructor, Fara, right? Media had a fit over it, some pictures surfaced and shit," he said. I'd forgotten about that, but that might have just been because I refused to acknowledge most of the things that happened at the academy.

"She's taking over for me," I said, soft.

"You left her behind, then?" he asked, he looked at me and he searched in my eyes for a second. It felt awfully personal, but I didn't blame him for asking, and I didn't dare withhold information

"Yeah." I paused a second, we both did, and I didn't like the silence, "When'd you end up running a station?"

"A little over 4 months ago we commandeered a space station during a mission. The client wanted his valuables back from within it but we kept the station and outfitted it to be our base of operations. Before that, we just sorta drifted and camped in the back alleys of Zoness and wherever we could go." He stopped, and all I could do was nod. He turned and fired right back, getting just a little more personal, "What did they tell you. . ." he paused, not sure how to word it, ". . .when news got back about your dad?"

I flinched, harder this time, and I looked at him with a very distinct expression, "Why would you even ask that?" I said, and he looked ready to apologize, but I still parted with the words far easier than I should have. I didn't even tell Fara when she asked, I just bit my tongue until I was ready, "I was told that Pigma turned on him and shot him out of the sky. Peppy only remembers being told he had to get the hell out of there." I paused another second, "The original story I got from Pepper said that Pigma had joined ranks with Star Wolf and that Peppy and my dad tried to fight him off, but my dad saw it was a losing battle. He sent Peppy off."

He looked like he was in pain, "We were supposed to capture him alive. Pigma shot him out of the sky."

"It's better that he got shot down. . ." I said, and I felt the words about my sighting of him on Venom bubbling to the surface. I bit my tongue.

"Sorry."

"It's just our job." Soon after, to break the silence one more time, I asked him the question that was at the back of my mind, "Why don't you hate me?"

"I just had a knife at your throat. I basically called you spoiled. I-"

"That's not the question, Wolf."

"I don't know. I just don't hate you, McCloud. We're mercenaries. If I hated someone every time they just did their job, I'd end up hating a hell of a lot of people out there," he said, "Not worth my time." I nodded again, "Why ask though? Do you hate me?"

I swallowed air, and I felt a little worried at the response, "A little."

"Why?"

"You let Pigma on your team. You helped kill my dad. Even if I try to be okay with it, it's nagged at me for a long time."

"Like you said before, it's just our jobs, McCloud."

"I didn't sign up for this job, Wolf, I ended up in it because I had to fill in my father's shoes," and I could feel the waterworks starting. I couldn't keep looking strong in front of Wolf, but I shielded it by staring forwards, never looking at him, "They hailed me as a hero when the only reason they liked me was because I was on the government's paycheck. You ended up with bounties for this job," I said, "It's not just a job if the government can charge us with treason for taking money we need."

"Maybe not, but even if they want to put a bounty on us, it's what we do. We escort freighters, we kill bandits. I don't really fucking care if we're painted as bandits because we took some jobs they didn't want us to. They don't offer us the work to keep us from being the bad guys sometimes. That kind of work was saved for you."

All I could muster was an, "Oh." I appreciated his honesty, and I could feel for a moment that it started to make sense to me. Wolf was there, but he wasn't a bad guy. Mercenaries were gray.

He sat there in silence for a few moments, and it was stifling. I looked at him, but he didn't make eye contact. "You didn't have to come to me, you could've made a new team, McCloud."

"Maybe I wanted to be in company with a good pilot."

We made eye contact again, we weren't on the best terms, but we respected each other. We hadn't fought in the air enough to hate each other, and I can't really imagine what it would've been like to hate him. I disliked him, when I said a little, I meant I disliked him, but I could see it. If he had a part, he regretted it in this moment. I murmured soon after, "I can't be angry at you just for doing your job, Wolf. I'll get over it."

We left it at that a little while longer. I felt time dragging, but I couldn't think of what to say. I looked at him and he was in the same state, and he dragged claws through gray fur to give him something to do. I found myself staring for a second, but it was at his eyepatch. "What are you looking at, McCloud?"

"Sorry."

We returned to silence before he looked at me a little more directly. It was something in his eyes that told me he knew exactly what I was looking at. His claw brushed over the cord of the patch, but he didn't move it other than seeming to be real fucking self-conscious about it. "Just fucking ask about it, McCloud. We're getting to know each other, you're curious."

"O-Oh," I said, and the pause made me feel like I was in the Academy again, "How'd you injure your eye?" I asked, and it was with some level of clarity at the very least.

"The team I originally ended up on," he said, pausing for a second, "Black Hawk," and my ears perked. I recognized that name, they got a horrible rap and they worked exclusively with crime bosses. He caught my intrigue, "They supplied ships to all of their recruits, they just needed warm bodies in them and they preyed on the recent Academy graduates. I needed the money and the ship to get off the ground," he said, and he paused for a second, "The first time I got shot down, it was early in a mission. Because of it, my team ended up failing the mission as a whole because they got into a dog fight and were one down. The boss took a knife to my eye as punishment and told me to take my ship and leave, that I'd already lost him enough money."

"Why-"

"Why'd he leave me alive? Beats me. Must've liked me. He killed the others that fucked up."

"How'd you get out of that?" I asked, looking at him.

"I overheated my blaster and used the barrel to cauterize my eye. I went straight to the closest station and ended up in their medical wing, and they couldn't even fit an implant in without doing serious surgery at that point," he said, and he lifted his hand and removed the eyepatch. There was no eye in the socket, not even a trace of one. Scar tissue trailed over what used to be his eyelids, but the skin had been sutured together to shield the former socket and there was just a hairless piece of flesh that hid what used to be there. I felt sick, but Wolf seemed to appreciate my calm response. He put the eyepatch on after a few seconds longer, and I didn't even know what to say.

I looked down after a few moments, not willing to face his eye contact, and after a few minutes more, I went ahead and stood and started my way towards the door. "It's too early for you to go," he said. I knew he wanted to add that I didn't have to leave just because he knew about his eye. It wasn't that.

I shook my head, "I'm gonna go see if I can get another drink to replace the one from earlier. Do you want one?" I asked. He went to say no, but he paused too long and I just stepped out of the room. I got us each two beers from the bartender, and he just looked at me, a leopard staring at me through half-lidded, judgmental eyes. After a few moments, he fished out two bottles from behind the bar, then wto more. When I went to leave, he handed me another set, opened.

"They're the ones you had earlier. I tucked them back here when you two forgot about them."

"Thanks," and I fished in my pockets to get my wallet and pay for them. I realized I hadn't paid for the ones earlier, either, and gave him a little extra on top of it all for a tip. He nodded and I made my way back to the stairs.

I had some trouble maneuvering with them, but I set my haul in front of Wolf when I got back to the room, "Why do we need so much to drink, McCloud?"

I held up my bottle from earlier, or his, I didn't care, "To toast," I said, and he grumbled before grabbing his own bottle. We clinked the tops, and I drank. It was definitely not mine, there was a little backwash, but Wolf seemed just fine with his. I grimaced a moment, and after the first drink, it was okay. An hour or so later, we were smiling and we were on our last beer. I realized soon I was on my last drink, and I toasted with him to being drunk. He chugged his down, I took my last drink, and I fell backwards onto the bed. All I could do was laugh.

"Don't fall asleep we've still got to go to the Academy. I'm leaving tomorrow whether or not you have that Arwing and it's not so easy to find Sargasso, pup." He fell behind and had to more or less chug his last two beers to catch up. It hadn't hit him yet, but I could feel it creeping along my tongue as I just found myself laughing.

"I won't," and I huffed as I brought myself back to a seated position. "Aren't we supposed to be rivals, Wolf?"

"Something like that. You flew point, I flew point, I saw some kid flying point and tried to shoot him out of the sky. He shot me down instead." He didn't even sound angry, I expected him to. "I got over it, it's been two years," he said, and that made sense.

I felt bad for a second, "I'm sorry I didn't get over it," and I realized how petty it was to hold onto it for two years.

"You had a good reason," he said. He didn't have to say it, but he was right, I partially blamed him for my dad's death. Pigma pulled the trigger, and in the end, I don't think there was any way for that to go down where my dad living would've been a good thing.

I looked at him through narrowed eyes for a second, and I could smell him again, "Why do you smell so good?" I asked, and I almost immediately sneezed at the next inhale. I could feel the alcohol swimming, but I was actually probably starting to sober up a little bit.

"What?"

"Ignore me."

"No, really, what the fuck?" he asked, and he started laughing. I just turned away, pretending like I didn't hear him like a child, and he just laughed harder. "Thanks, I guess, McCloud," he said, and he didn't pry any deeper.

"I said to ignore me, Wolf,"

"Know what? If we see Pigma again, I'll let you shoot him out of the sky," he said, and he chuckled a little bit more.

It was late, though, it was time, probably. I started to stand up, and Wolf found himself standing too. He went to gesture me back to a seated position, but I shook my head. "It's close enough and now's as good a time as any."

"You can wait until you're more sober. What if there are guards there?"

"Then I'll kill the guards."

Wolf was speechless at that. He probably thought I had bravado when I said I could kill someone, but he was right. I couldn't kill a fly, at least not usually, but those flies were in the way of my ship and I didn't care who I had to shoot to get to it. "Besides, Pepper wouldn't have issued to the guards that I was no longer working there, and in fact, if he did, they probably expect me back to get my things." I laughed, though, and pointed to the closet, "That's everything I own other than that ship." Everything I owned fit into that ship's storage compartments.

Wolf was still silent, but he murmured a soft, "I'll come with you, McCloud, and set myself up outside. If anything goes wrong, I'll bust you out, just this once." I looked at him, squinting for a second as I tried to figure out exactly what his intention was with that, but he only seemed to be concerned I'd fuck it up. "Before you go anywhere, we have to clean up the wound on your neck. You're not gonna get the happy entry you want if you walk up and the guards see you bleeding. You might be able to get in without shooting anyone but they'll be swarming you if you come up bleeding out of your damn neck."

He grabbed me and pulled me, and I whined. He should be as drunk as I am, but he was heavier and he seemed fine. I wasn't as fine, well, not the kind of fine I should be to be driving. We were standing over a sink, and he tried to bring handfuls of water up to my neck to wash it off. It wasn't doing any good, and after a few seconds, he muttered, "This'll be quicker," he said. He leaned in, and I realized what was happening after a second, his tongue dragging over the wound as he picked up flecks of dried blood with his tongue. I groaned. I blushed. He probably blushed too. "Shut the fuck up, McCloud."

He continued, each lick a little more firm than the last, but I could see bits and pieces of the progress in the mirror. When he drew away, I could see the faint mark of the cut, but no more blood was coming from the wound. The dried blood was gone, and he ran the tap again and drew a handful of water up. I smiled, but that was the most I could do without making it awkward, especially since having someone lick my throat got me worked up.

I started my way back towards the door and in the back of my mind I had Wolf's concerns playing on repeat. I stumbled a little, he might be right that I shouldn't be doing this now, but I started my way out of the bar.

Corneria didn't really have any law concerning public drunkenness and people were able to stumble home from the bars at. . . "What time is it?" and my comm lit up and revealed that it was a little past one in the morning. It wasn't too late, but there'd be no one there other than the guards if any, maybe some faculty in the dorms.

The atrium was the first room when you arrived to the building, and I was walking along with my hand on my hip, ready to pull my blaster at any moment. As I turned, I saw Wolf had camped himself out in a pair of bushes across the lawn, close enough to see and to have a stable local comm link, but not too close to rouse suspicion. As I walked up to the door, I saw two uniform-clad military officers at the door. They smiled, tipping their hats at me, and the one on the left asked, "Have a nice night, Mr. McCloud?"

"Lovely," I said, and I covered my mouth as I burped, but he just smiled back.

"Just be careful getting back to your room."

"I will."

I couldn't tell, but it seemed like they didn't know at all that I'd resigned from my position, and this was most likely the last time I'd be able to walk into this Academy. There was no going back to my old job, but I quickly approached the center of the atrium. To allow weather in, the dome was open over night, and worst case scenario, it was made of glass too.

I wove through the trees, approaching the central point of the room as I looked for the case. I couldn't help but stumble, and I caught the root of a tree and fell, feeling the ground rise up to meet me as it took a hell of a lot of willpower to keep from losing consciousness. I had fallen out of sight of the guards, so they didn't bother coming in to make sure that I would be okay and help me to my room.

Finally, I caught sight of the case, but as I got closer and the entirety was revealed to me, I let out a string of curses. It wasn't there, Pepper must have moved it, "What the fuck?" The glass was still resting neatly over where the Arwing used to be, but his legacy was gone. I could hear a response on my comm, Wolf must've said something, but I was too busy flipping the fuck out.

Eventually, there was a voice, "Fox. . ." and I turned sharply towards it. My hand had been on my blaster and it was drawn as I caught sight of them, I hadn't even bothered to turn it to stun. I didn't shoot right away, but I was met with Slippy's wide-eyed look of panic as I swung a gun on him. "It's me, Fox," he said, and he started walking towards the Engineering department, "Follow me."

I tilted my head a moment, but it was enough to keep me intrigued. Slippy might know what's going on, and I followed him. Each step felt a little longer than the last, but that might just be the creeping headache that was coming as I felt the slightest ebb in the swimming feeling in my head. I shook it a second and pushed the gun back into the holster on my belt. We walked into the depths of the Engineering department and eventually, he gestured me onto a cargo elevator at the back of the main shop. We descended into the building, and the creeping darkness drew some panic out of me. Eventually, all we had to light us were foglights, and as I touched my comm, I realized I was out of range from Wolf.

"I heard from Falco that you were resigning," he said, after a while, and all I could think was 'How does Falco know about that?' "When you came to all of us, asking about joining the team back, Peppy thought you'd probably end up leaving. I've been taking your Arwing out of the case every night and upgrading it to the current model," he said, and I felt my eyes widen for a moment as the elevator stopped. Slippy knew I'd be back, and he echoed that, "I knew you'd be back for your ship."

He walked through the lower levels of the shop, and Arwings and the likes lined the walls. Originally, the Academy didn't produce them, but they greenlighted and gave a lot of funds to Space Dynamics and Beltino, and eventually, Beltino housed a branch out of the school that completely outfitted the military and students. I could see it, though, on a platform that we were coming up on. It didn't look any different, the metal plating still a bit beat up but Slippy probably left that on because he knew I'd want it to be as much like it was as I remembered it.

"I was just finishing up with the final upgrade when I saw you show up on the security cameras," and when he caught my realization, he shook his head, "They all run through the Engineering Department. No one works in here dedicated until 2, they'll just panic and move the shift up to 1 when they realize what's happened," he said, but he gestured towards the Arwing, "It's a prototype, now," he said, "It's carrying all of the advancements we're completing in our next 3 months of research," he said, 'If it blows up on you, I'm sorry, Fox," and he looked down a moment before he stepped towards the ship, "Pilot: Fox McCloud."

The hatch opened and I stepped up onto the platform. "The others don't know I'm doing this, Fox," he said, looking down for a moment, "They'd probably be here to see you off if they could."

I shook my head a moment, lifting the cover and revealing the cockpit. Even the seating hadn't been changed out, still sunken and shaped for me, and I smiled. "It's fine, Slippy." I set myself into the cockpit and looked out over the edge. It was nearly 2, if I stayed and had a proper goodbye, we'd both get in a lot of trouble. "What about the security footage, though?"

"I'm replacing it with doctored footage before I go," he said, and he sighed softly, but he walked to the edge of the platform and pressed a button. The ceiling above me opened, revealing the room above. "There's a blast door that'll be straight ahead of you once you reach the upper shop," he said, and he waved for a second, "Good luck, I'll open it now," he said, and the platform below me began to rise rapidly.

Within seconds, Slippy's image was gone and I pulled the glass of the cockpit down over me. My comm link to wolf returned as I was into the engineering department again, "Are you okay?" The blast door began to open as I quickly went through my pre-flight checklist, and I heard shouting of some form a few seconds later from outside my Arwing. I took off and left the building.

"I'm fine, Wolf," I said, and I veered out over the sky, "Where am I taking this?" I only had a little time and the only thing that kept me from drunkenly hitting a lamp post was the fact that the Arwing naturally stabilized my movements and kept me from more or less killing myself. That was a good thing in the long run.

Wolf gave me a location that quickly shifted to the glass of my Arwing, and I set myself back to the bar before I went there. It was only a few seconds, the authorities weren't moving quickly enough to get me. The window was open, Wolf forgot to close it, and I lowered the Arwing and set it to hover outside the window before I dove in. I grabbed my bags, and I looked back out for a second, at the hovering structure that represented a lot of my good memories, and some of the ones that were just as bad as they were sentimental.

I tossed the bags into the Arwing and jumped back in, but I could hear an alarm being raised. I had stolen a government monument, a monument to my family's history. My history mattered more than its display, and I closed the cockpit quickly before I set my target location and left Corneria behind. They wouldn't follow me out of the stratosphere, and once I got to Sargasso, it wouldn't matter anyways.

–

 _Author's Note: And plot! Of course, there's bound to be conflict and other stuff, but a moment of peace and opportunity is nothing to be pushed aside, also the first inklings of Wolf/Fox stuff. Wolf and Fox butt heads because of Fichina and Venom and such, but if that's the only time they were ever really against each other, then it would make sense for Wolf to not be quite so harsh to Fox as there's less of a reason to hold a grudge. I'm pairing this alongside the fact that he started to warm up to Fox following the Lylat Wars and you can see that he respects Fox at the very least._


	4. Sargasso Space Station

_Author's Note: Trying to pinpoint how exactly I want different characters to behave in certain situations and all, but full steam ahead for the time being while I get a more definite feel. Expect more questionable boundaries and weird things, though, but it's not romance yet._

–

I screamed myself out of a fitful sleep. When I got my bearings back, I found myself panting in my Arwing. Every time I slept, I saw him again, and it should've been a dream to see him, but it never was. The media had torn me apart in the early part of the war, saying that I was just a dumb kid trying to fill my father's shoes and a delinquent at best. He always agreed with them in those dreams. I found myself crying, for lack of any clue what to do otherwise.

That dream was different though, there were new people. I never saw Star Wolf in my dreams, not when I had them, but they were there. Wolf took the fall, really obviously, and let me take the win to improve my standing with the media. Leon pulled shots and missed Falco, he kept my friend from dying, but. . . in the end, the people that heard the results still laughed and still stared. Of course Junior beat a pilot that only had one eye, the dumbass was flying without depth in a field that even a 10 year old could out pilot him.

My ears pinned to my head, but I saw that my comm link was flashing. I clicked the comm link, and for the first time, I looked out of the glass of the cockpit. "Oh, wow," I said, and the line that picked up was Wolf.

"You've been drifting about out there since we came in. Your ship's a bit faster than ours, you've had to have been here for at least 6 hours," he said, tilting his head visibly. I don't even remember clicking my own video on, but I must've looked a mess, "We cleared you to dock, the docking bay doors are on the underside of the station." He turned to look at something, gesturing back towards the camera, "I'm gonna go meet him at the docks," he said, and then the connection cut.

I could still feel the touch of tears on my face, and I realized that I just needed to stop being a cry baby. I wiped them up, with my thumbs and started my engine back up. It must've auto shut off when I didn't input further instructions after we arrived at the coordinates, but I steered myself with a little bit of ease into the dock. The creeping headache certainly didn't help, or the cotton mouth that had to have been the worst thing I'd experienced in months. I landed, and the first thing I did when I got out of my Arwing and saw Wolf was ask, "How much did I have to drink exactly?"

"A bit much," he said, and he threw a water bottle in my direction. I missed, not expecting it, but it also didn't explode on the ground so that was a plus. I grabbed it, opening it and chugging every last drop, and even then, I still felt like I'd been eating sand for days. I coughed, and walked the rest of the way over for him, he even waited a second to make sure I did catch up. "Welcome to Sargasso," he said, and I looked at him for a second as I saw just how unenthused he was, but he gave me a tour.

"The center of our base is mostly blocked off, from the outside and it contains a handful of shelters in the case of attacks. The top floor is restricted to the central area and has a 360 view that functions as our bridge. This floor is largely restricted to common areas that allow for some level of comfort for a base. We have the docking bay that we just came out of, up on our right is a fully equipped gym, to our left is a kitchen, and on the other end of the hall there's a swimming pool as well as just a common room," he said, continuing his walk down to show me those.

"The floors above this are circular and consist of a large amount of our living space and meeting rooms," he said, "Additionally, we have emergency docking locations on each floor that must be opened manually by one of our staff," he said, and he stopped and turned before his claws caught each of my eyelids. I went to back the fuck up, but his hand was on the back of my head and then I felt him find my scruff and I was limp. He removed his hand from my eye for a second before he pulled out a scanner of some sort and removed the hand from the back of my head and repeated the motion, scanning my left eye first, then my right eye, "You're in the system, McCloud," he said, then returned to the tour as if nothing had happened.

We arrived at an elevator and he pressed the button to take us up, "I'll take you through one of the residential floors then we'll go up to the upper levels and I can show you our command center, bridge and such," he said. As we arrived on the next level, he was true to his word and a long hallway of doors was there. The station was massive, though, and there was a single ring of doors. He walked a little bit until he found one that was empty and opened it. The building must be AI maintained, because even with no one living in it, it would still find some way to get a mess if it was unlocked, but it was pristine and massive. Each of these rooms were essentially small apartments or hotel rooms, and a bathroom was next to the door, a large sprawling living space, a refrigerator, a TV, and then a door that separated the bedroom.

"Wow," I said, and he smiled for a second.

"I don't do anything half-assed," and then he let me through the room a little bit more. It wasn't decorated, but it had basic furniture like the bed, TV, fridge, a couch, a couple chairs, a table, and a desk. Even though the furniture was basic in that it was needed, it wasn't cheap. The couch was a dark leather and I went to sit in it and sank, "This is your room, by the way," he said, and he fished in his pocket before throwing me a key. I wanted to look more, but I knew we had a tour, and after a few seconds on the couch, I was back up and we were moving again.

The elevator ride was longer this time, and when we arrived, we arrived with the sound of music really near by, "We have a bar to your right," he gestured, but he was moving to his left and I couldn't help but look over my shoulder. It looked normal, no kids getting murdered on the pool table or anything, in fact, this was so much nicer than I would've ever thought to get. "Primary meeting room for our upper staff," he gestured, and he started to walk in. I followed. The table in the center had a large piece of tech built into the center and I tilted my head for a second, "Should be familiar to you, it projects 3D models, videos, whatever. We use it to discuss targets and larger missions or anything that's too damn confusing to explain otherwise," he said, then gave a lazy grin, "Or watch movies on it when we hit a dry spell for missions."

I found myself tilting my head a bit, curious but not enough to ask any questions about it. It was still so strange to see Wolf happy and cheerful and giving me a tour, he'd been such an ass when we met on Fichina. To be fair, he held a knife to my throat before he agreed to let me fly on his team. He was still talking, I could hear him vaguely, but I just sorta closed my eyes and followed the sound of his footsteps. There was something weird about this, and I still couldn't completely place my finger on it, but Wolf being this nice was definitely up there in the list of strange occurrences since I'd been around them. It hadn't even been a full 24 hours.

I heard Wolf pause in whatever he was saying, my eyes slipping shut as I realized we were on the bridge now, but there was no one else around, "Why are you being as nice as you are to me?"

"I told you I don't hold any grudges because of our job, McCloud."

"That explains why you don't hate me, but why are you being this generous?" I said, gesturing and turning around to the room. There was no one in this room, but it was a beautiful view, there was no way that no one ever came up here.

I saw Wolf lean a bit, and then I heard the door behind me close. I turned, and when I looked back, he was walking towards one of the massive windows that lined the bridge. He had been telling the truth, before. The door stood at the center of the room, attached to the elevator, and there was massive windows lining the entire room to give view in every direction. Wolf was walking in the direction of another 3D projector as well as a table, but he passed it before he stood in front of the window. When he didn't speak immediately, I went to follow him before I stood a few feet to his side, also staring out the window.

I couldn't make out shapes too far in the distance, but there was a massive asteroid belt that seemed to bend and flow around the base. It was running some pretty impressive gravitational technology, and likely, if I hadn't been cleared for landing or there had been a malfunction, I wouldn't have been able to so much as approach the base. The ship would've been thrown to the side and I probably would've hit an asteroid. I could see the stars, massive and bright but so distant that I could never touch them. He finally spoke up, "I was just hoping I could start over," he said.

"What?" I responded. "What do you have to start over with?"

"Your father," he said.

I looked at him for a second, and I could still feel that burning resentment that was there, but it wasn't directed at Wolf, it just hung to that subject. I would never completely be over that, "I'm not sure he's dead," I finally said, "Whether he is or he's not, he's still watching me," I said, and I looked down for a moment, placing a hand against the glass as I felt the endless chill of the expanse beyond. I let out a breath, one I didn't know I'd been holding, "I saw him after I defeated you."

Wolf looked at me for a second, and his mind was racing, but instead of arguing it, like Peppy had done, he gave a nod, "We didn't investigate after his ship went down," and he left it at that. It wasn't much, but it gave me at least a little bit of hope for the time being.

He turned after a few moments, but all I could murmur was another, "Thanks," and I turned back towards him. He had motivation to be nice to me in that he felt guilty. That had to be enough to drive someone to turn over a new leaf.

"This is the bridge, by the way," he said, starting to walk down the line of windows. I started following him again, but I could hear his words were stilted at least a little bit, "We use this as a command center for any locally based attacks. Unlike most bridges, this is incredibly far from the battlefield but that's due to the fact that we have a massive staff. We're employing a little over 70 pilots at the moment and in the typical attack on our base, one of our primary crew members will stage themselves out of this room and command the squadron. As of right now, since Leon isn't much of a talkative type, I've been leading all of these as they come, but they're rare. I'd like you to be prepared in the case that this were to happen as well."

"And why would you trust me with that?"

"That's exactly the response I'd get from someone who I should probably trust," he said, "Besides, you won't do it at first, but you should know how." He circled the room a bit, before finally saying, "Flight Commander: Wolf O'Donnell." The windows, all at once, were covered by different figures, "Mode: Systems Test." The lights dimmed a bit on the screens and took a distinct green hue. As he continued to walk, he started to gesture at the windows as he passed, "Each of these windows is directly attached to both the main docking bay and the emergency docking bays located beneath it," he said, "There's something like 30 windows here, and there's a total of 15 docking bays so they're done in pairs of two," he said, and he stopped, gesturing to silvery metal that was present between two of the windows, "These silver strips designate divisions between docking bays while the black strips designate adjoined windows."

I gave nods, but it was starting to get to be more and more information, and he only had more to give, "Anything that you say in front of these windows will be broadcast to both of these bays. Right here, the glass provides information on how many ships are docked in the associated bay as well as coordinates for all objects within the space for approximately 2 miles outside of these windows," he said, "If you push the coordinates, it'll give you the map form of the various coordinates and that'll overtake the screen. That'll let you verify you're looking at the right thing and communicate that information to the people flying," he said, and then he tapped the screen again as it returned to the previous screen. "Flight Commander End," and the screens went dull again.

If that was all the information I needed to know on the screens, that would be fine, I could do that and it wouldn't be too much of an issue. I turned and looked at them, returning to the windows out to a beautiful scene. Wolf had to have had a lot of money or be deep, deep into debt, and I don't know which of those two was more worrisome. We probably wouldn't have made a dime, but to make money, you took all sorts of jobs. He'd probably killed a lot of people, and he looked it, but not as much as Leon did.

The steps led us to the table I had seen earlier, or a matching one, we couldn't have made the full ring in that time that we'd been walking. "Here we have a local command table, like the one downstairs," he said, "Same controls, same functions, but we also have the added benefit of being able to register ships to be able to dock in our bays here," he said, gesturing to some of the yellow buttons that lined the console, "It works in conjunction with the coordinate system that was present on the glass earlier, and it'll bring up a list of coordinates and the map system appears so you can properly locate the specific ship you want to designate. This system is a little smarter and only returns the coordinates for ships, targeting the emissions that they give off. Of course, if you want to register a stealth craft, you're gonna want to be better with the coordinates. Or tell them to give you the coordinates."

He stood again after a few moments, and it seemed like he had run out of things to show me, but he didn't seem to be done, "You want to sit up here a while and use one of the windows to watch a movie?" he asked, and I narrowed my eyes for a second.

"Why isn't there anyone up here, Wolf?"

"I don't know."

"I just got out of the relationship with Fara. . ." I started.

He looked at me, and I could see something going on in his eyes for a second before it ever happened. The next second, I was pinned against the glass and the words didn't even quite reach me at first but he was screaming, "You left her and your entire career behind. You can't fucking expect me to believe that you cared about her when you didn't even like her enough to stay," he said. He had pinned me with a single hand, and I realized a second later that his claws had broken the skin and broken the skin on my chest. I reacted immediately to the pain, and my head swung forward and hit his, he reeled back, and rather than run, I shed my flight jacket and scarf.

"I don't fucking care what you're looking for in me right now," I said, and I charged forward and went to kick him. His arm deflected my blow and he immediately went to punch me. I used whatever strength I had retained to flip into a kick, but that strength wasn't as much as I expected as he easily stepped out of the rather slow kick and I landed on my stomach without making the full arc. I went to stand, but he moved quicker and his foot as in the mid of my back.

It only stayed there a second, "Get up, McCloud, let's have a fair fight," and he extended a hand down to me. When I was back up, he took a few steps back. We both charged in. He punched and I dodged, using my smaller frame as I swung with my fast in the opposite direction. He deflected it and landed a clean kick on my side, only to be matched by a cough that felt like I had internal bleeding in my future if he landed a few more like that. My arm lowered and grabbed his leg, and I immediately dropped into a split and kicked his other leg out from under him.

I wasn't fast enough to land a punch, Wolf rolling away from me as I came back to my feet. I was pretty sure I pulled something in my crotch at that motion, but every part of me seemed to be struggling to keep up in ways that I used to be just fine. This would never have been an issue if I hadn't ended up behind a fucking desk. As Wolf came back in, I dodged his punches again and landed a clean one against his chest, but fuck, I couldn't even form a fist right and I came off hurting just as bad as probably did.

The next time he came in, he swung his leg again, and when I caught it he proved he was a hell of a lot more nimble than me as he used the reversed momentum to swing his other leg at me, but he pulled it. It crashed into my shoulder instead of the side of my skull and I was thrown right off the fucking ground and a few feet back onto the ground nearby. When I went to stand, I knew I'd lost and Wolf's hand was extended out to me to help me up. I just looked at him, I could see the phantom of his old self in that outburst, of being uncontrolled and holding a grudge. "You're just trying to be professional like I did at that hellhole," I murmured.

He responded by pressing his lips firmly to mine, and I didn't even have the chance to respond, to push him back or to concede before he pulled back again, "Yeah, and that's what I get for winning," he said. I realized he'd made a bet without actually ever making a bet, and he turned and walked away from me. His pheromones told a thousand tales, and I could feel the sheer confused rage that was pouring off of him. He didn't look back, he just opened the elevator and disappeared within.

"Officer Fox McCloud," I said, out of pure reflex, "Hold the elevator," and I could hear some discontented shout as I jogged across the room and to the door. The door opened and revealed the open elevator door before I got in and followed him down. "How long?"

"Venom."

"What about Venom?"

"You went in alone to Andross' base," he said.

"But you weren't there on the surface when I came out, there was no sign of Star Wolf."

"This is a story you don't want to hear, McCloud," and as the elevator stopped, he stepped out and walked to his room

"What the hell does that mean!?" I shouted after him, and it was met with a heavy silence. I hit the button and returned to the floor below and trailed the circle of doors. They all looked so similar from the outside, and I had to inspect my key to find a room number before I was able to find my door and unlock it. I stepped in and locked it right behind me and I was met with an overwhelming silence. Even the hum the power systems had in the hallway was absent, and I stepped into the room as if there'd be someone else there but there was no one and I don't know why I'd ever think that.

I tucked myself into the desk chair and leaned back a little bit as the chair leaned naturally with me. There were some questions I needed answered, but none of the immediately relevant questions involving Wolf could be satisfied with a comm search, so I chose to search and figure out what exactly had happened after I left. "Comm search: Fox McCloud." A screen came up, holding over the small pad and it brought up results and the like. There was an encyclopedia page, but it was quickly followed with news stories.

 _McCloud steals the ship flown in Lylat Wars_

 _McCloud steals from employer day of quitting_

 _McCloud holding a bounty of over 200,000 credits_

 _McCloud leaves behind Fara, Rumored Pregnancy_

 _McCloud case leads to school-wide investigations_

I stopped reading them. A lot of them sounded similar, some were just plagiarized articles slipping onto another site for viewers and shock, but I found myself drawn to the one mentioning Fara. I pressed a finger against the display, and it opened it up. It revealed that there was a video, and that video was quickly revealed to be an interview of Fara.

" _Hi, Fara." The woman interviewing her was a tigress, terrifying and beautiful all at the same time. She was dressed in a suit, a ruffled blouse fading down into her cleavage as she was trying to draw attention to herself._

" _Hello," and Fara was wearing the same officer's garb I had grown to know her for, even though it wasn't unique to her. She was stone faced, but I felt like she had been crying recently._

" _We're glad you were able to come in on such short notice, given the events that have happened."_

 _Fara paused a second and nodded, "I only wanted to come and do an interview or two, the earlier I do them the easier it is," she said._

" _Well, we just wanted to ask: Did you know Fox was debating quitting?"_

 _She gave a shook of her head, my heart sank, but I knew what was coming, "No. Fox had. . . he asked his former team members about potentially reforming Star Fox. He never officially told me until the day of him leaving."_

" _Why do you think he did that?"_

" _Because he was scared of leaving?" she said, but she was unsure of herself, "I don't know. He was unhappy and I don't know if he ever wanted to admit that to me."_

" _Unhappy with you?"_

" _No," Fara said, and she was firm, "The only joy he ever found at the Academy was his students. His job quickly became all paperwork and he lost the joy that he had," she said, "Once Jinx had graduated, his pet project, he had lost a lot of his will to stay."_

" _Do you think he ever had relations with Jinx?" and the tigress was leaning forwards and squinting at Fara, looking for any body language._

" _No." Fara didn't even flinch, she looked furious, but she didn't flinch._

" _How are you holding up through all of this? We heard that after Fox's departure, one of the requests he'd made in his letter was seen through."_

" _Yes," she said, folding her hands over one another in her lap, "Fox requested that I take over the Leadership program and Pepper confirmed it this morning. It was certain enough to not have to go through the trustees, but I'll be taking over all of the students and taking a new class in this coming year."_

I found myself smiling.

" _Congratulations! We just have a few more requests regarding you and Fox," she said, "What is your feeling regarding him taking the Arwing with him."_

I knew Pepper would see this interview as well, she'd have to censor herself, for better or for worse.

" _He did exactly what he should have done."_

I started crying again.

" _He wasn't informed when the Arwing was originally going to be put on display until he unveiled it. He requested it be removed frequently, then requested that he be able to take it when he left. He was constantly refused, and while I don't agree with how, I don't disagree with why," she said._

 _The interviewer looked stunned as well, and she had to regain her composure before she continued that line, "But there's a massive bounty that's been placed on him in response to this."_

" _He deserves that too."_

" _Very well." The tigress started flipping through the notes she had, and she had lost her space in some heat of the moment, but she was back after a few seconds, "What do you have to say about the pregnancy rumors that are floating around."_

 _Fara looked away from the camera for a second, looking away from the interviewer as she looked away, "I'm not sure," she said, and she left it at that._

 _The tigress just licked her lip, like it was some delicious piece of information she'd gotten. "Well, that's all we have. Thank you for joining us, Fara."_

The screen went dark and I just stared. There was a whole lot of information that was there that I wasn't ready for, but Fara loved me and that wasn't to be mistaken. Fara could be pregnant and that was terrifying, because if she was, it was mine. I couldn't go back now, even if I wanted to. When I stole that Arwing I broke any chance of ever returning to Corneria in anything but shackles.

Our comm links couldn't be traced unless we really fucked up, but as I went to dial Fara, I realized that I couldn't bring myself to do it and I just closed the connection that I had and stood back up. I walked out, and I was sure as I reached the elevator, I could find Wolf's room if I did at least a little bit of searching.

Given that the rooms were minorly personalized, I expected something that indicated it was his, but there was a name plate on the exterior of the door as I reached it. I looked at it, and I knew that he had to still be in there. I knocked a few times, and I heard some rustling on the other side of the door. He opened it, he smelled of alcohol and he still looked pissed. I pushed past him and stepped into his apartment, it was similar to the basic but there was a lot of memorabilia scattered around the room. "Why are you here, Fox?" he asked, and I just went in and sat down.

I looked at him for a moment, and I was sure he could probably tell I was crying, but go figure, I was a huge crybaby and that's what I seemed to do lately. I lost one tear and then I lost a thousand. I looked a little rough, but I looked around the room a little bit before I found my words. "I looked up the news from Corneria," and he winced. He probably had already seen it, I had slept in my Arwing for so damn long. I buried my face into my hands and yelled my frustrations into them. Instead of coming to join me, he opened the closet near the door and dug through it for a second before he walked in. "I have a massive bounty, reporters are suggesting I slept with my students, and Fara is probably pregnant."

I felt something drape over me, and I looked up to find my jacket and scarf, "You can sleep on the couch if you want," he said, "I'm gonna go lie down soon, though." I just looked at him for a second before nodding, and for a moment, it didn't feel so weird.

"Thanks."

–

 _Author's Note: Shorter chapter! That was to be expected since the content is a little less interesting in terms of plot progression, also because I'm on a lot of migraine medication. I'll be working on the next chapter and I should be able to get 2 more out before the end of break. Hope you all enjoy, feel free to leave reviews if you have any suggestions, critiques, compliments, etc. It gives me an idea of where I'm going with the story._


	5. Doves and Ravens

_Author's Note: More plot stuff, slightly longer chapter incoming and all of that. If you haven't been paying close attention up to now, there's a handful of foreshadowing elements that are connecting to the future points in the story. Things that seem like they're not panning out too much have some connection to those elements and I'm hoping I can explore at least a little bit more to do with Fox's articulated response to the kiss (and why he didn't fully respond to it when it happened in this chapter)._

 _Also, thank you for the reviews! Even the periodic review reminds me that I've got a bunch of people reading this story and I need to keep on with it, it's keeping me motivated to get these chapters out. I hope you all enjoy._

–

 _The explosion, I saw it all the time, Andross falling back into the void as he cursed me and screamed. "If I go down, I'm taking you with me," and the base started to give way around us. A massive explosion caught my ship and my systems were overloaded for a second, I was losing consciousness. The next hit that rocked my ship sent stars across my vision and it started to turn white._

" _Don't ever give up my son," and it returned, I could hear his voice._

" _Father!?" and I was stuck on a script. I shook myself from it, I walked away from the golden light that was starting to bathe me and I found myself back in my ship. I turned, it took all my effort, but I got my ship to move and to push me home._

" _Follow me, Fox." He never acknowledged me, he always just led me back to that entrance and towards the weaving corridors that had led me into Andross' base. "This way, Fox," he said, turning into one of the corridors. I turned to see why we went that way, and I saw the horrible fire at the end of the other corridor. How could we possibly get out?_

" _Never give up, trust your instincts," he said, and I knew we were getting close. "You've become so strong, Fox," and then he vanished into the air like nothing had happened._

 _My team was there, they were all there, and I could hear the expression of concern from Peppy. I'd tell him, he'd tell me I was imagining it._

 _No other ship had left those blast doors._

 _I tried to play it back through my head, I didn't fly back with my team, I started screaming, "Where is he?"_

 _There was no response._

"Where is he!?" and I jolted awake. I was back in Wolf's room, and the larger male was standing over me looking bewildered for a second. It took me a second, but I realized I was cold and wet, he was holding a cup. He had thrown water over me.

"You were talking in your sleep," he said, handing me a towel to wipe up the water that was starting to soak into my fur. "Are you still having nightmares from Venom?" I couldn't recall telling him that, and I was pretty sure that wasn't something that I told him, but maybe in the hotel room when we had been drinking. . . I had told him that I'd seen my dad at the very least.

"Yeah," I said, and I sat up as I started to work the towel over my face. It took a second to come back down, to really grasp what had happened all over again, but I couldn't seem to find the feelings or the words in the moment. "Why are you dressed?" I asked, and I didn't mean it to come out like that. I blushed and he just grinned like an idiot for a second. "No, really?"

He laughed this time, "We have a mission," he said, "I thought you might want to get in line and get to know the team you'll be flying with," he said. "If you're not feeling up to it, you can stay and sleep, but I need an answer and we already got briefed on it, so I'll have to catch you up."

I looked at him for a second, "What time is it?"

"About 11," and the color drained from my face. I hadn't slept in that much in years, my body always jolted awake. . . but there was no alarm to keep me to it and I had needed the alarm to get me up ever since the nightmares started. That one was mild, he wasn't telling me that I was a failure. I laid the towel over the arm of the couch, giving it somewhere to dry a bit as I stood up.

"I'll go," I said, and I knew I had to because being left here to my own devices for any period of time was terrifying. At the school, I survived because of routine. If I had stayed as a mercenary, I would've snapped, and I probably still will. I needed a team to keep me sane, and if I didn't bother getting to know them, I don't know if I'll make it through this all that sane.

"Before you agree to go," he said, "I should tell you what the mission is."

We stepped out of the room and started to walk towards the elevator, he had held some silence since that statement. "Aren't you going to tell me, Wolf?" I asked, and he gave a little nod but held back until we had actually arrived in the elevator and had a little bit of guaranteed privacy.

"We're going to Zoness for the mission. There's two factions competing to take over Zoness' government in the power vacuum following the war," he said, "The Doves and the Ravens, some dumb argument of peace versus knowledge," he said. "One of them wants to use Zoness' proximity to Solar and the exterior of the system as a means of advancing research on the planet and progressing towards purifying its waters, the Ravens. The Doves are hoping to achieve this goal through diplomatic means with Aquas and enlisting its scientists," he said. "The Ravens have requested the assassination of one of the leaders in the Doves, the figurehead that's getting movement in the votes. We got confirmation that that leader was moving money to buy out some of the businesses on Zoness and get as many votes as he thought possible. It's gray, he's kinda a crook, but they want us to kill him."

I looked at him, "Do you really think I can't kill someone, Wolf?" I asked, and I looked him dead in the eye. "What do you think I thought was happening every time I shot someone down in the war?"

He looked back, and I found my gaze drifting to his nonfunctioning eye, and I remembered the story and the skin that was there and left behind. My hand had lifted, starting to move in his direction before I realized it and I pulled it back. He looked at my hand thoughtfully, but he didn't remark on it, "I thought you would justify it because they were the enemy in an ugly war," he said, "That killing them was saving people's lives."

"Maybe," I said, but I thought on it for a second, "Maybe this time, I'm killing them to save my own."

We were nearing the docking bays, and as the door went to open, I pressed the button to keep the door closed, shutting the elevator off quickly, "Before we go, we need to talk." He went to push the button to open the door and I pushed his arm away.

"Fine," he said, not wanting to get into another fight, especially not in the elevator, "What are we going to talk about."

"Since Venom?"

"Oh. . ." and he paused.

"You've had feelings about me since Venom?"

"You could say that." He lifted a hand and drug a claw through the fur on his chin, he was avoiding eye contact.

"You flew into Venom airspace pissed as hell and went down onto Venom even more pissed. I don't even know how you got out of there without being arrested but that was the firefight that determined your life to be a living hell, as far as I know."

He started to shake his head, and I thought he was saying no, but he just said, "We can't talk about this, Fox," and went for the button again. I went to slap his arm away but he just pushed me back with the other one. The door opened and he stepped out of the elevator, "Turn it back on before you come out, please," and he walked away just like that.

"God damn it, Wolf," and I flipped the elevator back on before I started walking after him, "What the fuck happened on Venom that I don't know about?" He ignored me, and no amount of me getting angry and stooping to his level, huffing and throwing a tantrum behind him, seemed to be getting to him. He got to his ship, he set himself in the cockpit and went to close the glass behind him.

"This is a land mission, McCloud. I've brought extra equipment for you and it's in my Wolfen. You need to calm down before we land because it's a stealth mission and I will let you be arrested if you make a scene." The cockpit closed and he looked back away from me. The screens started to light up, barely visible from where I was but I could distinctly see that only one half of his Wolfen had a display built into it. The other half was blank, and it was because he couldn't really utilize it.

I couldn't afford to freak out anymore. I had to get into my Arwing and I had to go. There'd be food or something later, I could get myself sorted out and go on a mission. I told myself all of this, but the moment my comm link was open into Star Wolf's channel, which seemed to be silent, I narrowed it to a private channel with Wolf. I opened my mouth, I wanted to ask him why he felt bad enough for me to let me act like this and not kick me off the team, but he had feelings for me and he was enduring it. The verge on a scream was undermined and I let out a soft, "I'm sorry," and I flew forwards and fell in line behind Wolf. The line reverted back and I looked to my left to see Leon as well.

Leon seemed the type for this sort of mission, cold and calculating and ready to see a body. Wolf didn't seem too much like the stealth type, but he made up for that in leadership. I knew all along when I was leading Star Fox that I wasn't all that much of a leader, I was a pilot. I drummed my fingers a bit on the wheel and we pulled free from Star Wolf controlled space and into Venom.

It only took a minute or so of harsh silence for me to murmur into the mic, "Is it normally this quiet?" and the immediate response I got was Wolf's laugh.

"Leon and I have flown solo for a little while. He's not much for talking, so I just got used to it." Leon hummed in acknowledgment, but I gave a small nod as we peeled through the stars.

The asteroid belt proved to be surprisingly easy to navigate, but that may just be how it was when I wasn't at the helm. The belt outside Corneria was damn near impossible to get through and asteroids collided constantly. It almost ate my ship but we wove through this one with relative ease. I took a look at the Lylatian map after a few moments, and it turned out this was the very same one—Meteo. "Damn good, flying," I said, easily, "This belt is usually a nightmare."

"Thanks," Wolf said. We emerged from the belt and I could see Katina on our left and Solar was oppressively close to us. There were always stories growing up that if you flew too close to the sun that you'd catch fire and burn up, but the fact that we were able to navigate the surface of Solar with these ships was impressive just the same, and in the distance, it was only a gesture of warmth towards us. I let out a soft sigh as the stars drifted past us.

As we passed Katina, I could see the distant figure of Aquas and our goal, Zoness. "How did you two meet, anyways?" I asked, "I looked up your portfolios when I was in the Academy to try and figure out a little more about your past, but it sort of went blank after the Academy for you, Wolf. You started military then. . ." I paused. He had been discharged following an injury that had resulted from an altercation with a superior officer. That officer had been unnamed. "There was nothing but a list of charges for Leon."

Leon laughed this time, "Andross found my people on Venom when he was exiled there. He was hailed as a God because he was our first outside contact," and I could hear him thinking a moment, "He uplifted us and then we rapidly developed to match Corneria. My parents were the first generation under his leadership and a lot of the kids on Venom were trained for special forces," he said, "I was one of them."

Wolf chimed in at this point, "Come time when Star Wolf was forming to participate in the war for Andross, Leon had already been discharged from Venomian forces due to his methods."

When I went to ask, Leon had already chimed in to explain that, "Assassinations were meant to always be done with a gun. You should always be efficient in your weapon choice and make it as hard to track you as possible," he said, "I preferred knives. They wanted to demonstrate that guns were more efficient with me," he said, "But I got to them before they could line up a lethal shot."

"Lethal?" I asked.

"I took 7 shots on the way there. As recognition, they paid for my medical treatment then dishonorably discharged me." I nodded because saying sorry wouldn't mean anything and congratulating him didn't seem right. Leon didn't really seem right, but he was talking.

"One of my contacts in Venom's army told me about Leon, they'd been in the troop together. It was supposed to be a joke about this madman that just wanted to play with knives, but we tracked his movements a little bit. We finally met at a bar and I offered him a job."

"I only took it because I needed the money. I didn't want to work for Andross."

"Looks like you never really did, anyways," I said, "For you to still be following Wolf, you two had to have done something to double cross him."

Wolf just looked away from his comm for a second, "Something like that."

The last few moments in space were silence, and then the reminder to activate G-Diffusers as we hit Zoness atmosphere. The time we'd spent here, we flew over infested waters that looked like they were filled with oil and grime, and that water didn't seem to have changed all that much. Zoness was a filthy trade world that dealt with underhanded criminals more often than anything else. The water wasn't as visible where we were arriving, though, and there was a large space port immediately below our current position and that seemed to be where we intended to go.

"We'll be meeting with our client in person after we land," Wolf said, and I gave a quick acknowledgment before I leveled out my ship and lowered to the ground on the tarmac below. I slipped straight from the ship onto the ground, "Systems: Shut Down." The Arwing powered off and it was only then that I realized how much the two Wolfens dwarfed it. Nimble against powerful and nimble had barely won.

As I turned to face the other two, I realized they had begun walking ahead. Wolf was carrying two bags, Leon one, and as I caught up to Wolf's side, he handed me the one. It must've been my supplies. I gave a small nod of acknowledgment and our stride continued until Wolf suddenly stopped. A hulking lion stood from a nearby bench, immaculately groomed and dressed in a black suit, and began walking towards us. He had to be around seven feet tall and it took all of my will power to not stare up at him like I was terrified, because I kind of was.

"Hello, my name is George Trey. I'll be taking you all to meet with Mr. Webber," he said, and retrieved each of the bags we were carrying. He turned towards the entrance and began walking.

To try and calm my apparent stupor, Wolf murmured, "We were told to look for a lion once we landed that would escort us back to the client." I nodded and we walked along. It didn't really help my nerves that we immediately turned into a back alley and entered a door there, but all the buildings on the street were massive. We were greeted by a service elevator with a door off to the side, likely leading to the rest of the floor and he stooped down to step in.

Finally, the lion spoke again, "Have you all eaten yet?" he asked.

I shook my head, "I don't know if the other two have, but I was woken up right before we left."

"Late sleeper?"

"Long week."

"Ahh, yes," he said, "Well, I'll be sure to get you all something to eat once we get there. It'll take a little bit, but the kitchens downstairs will prepare food for you all and have it brought up.

Wolf looked over, "Thank you."

"Do you all have any preferences?" and I realized that for how fast the elevator was going, we still didn't seem to be near our destination.

Wolf gave a slight shake of his head, "Anything here is probably fine. Steak would probably be best, or any other heavier meat."

"Cook?"

"Rare."

He looked at Leon next, "Something with seafood. Shrimp if you can."

His eyes trailed to me, "Steak as well, medium-rare."

He nodded a bit, not bothering with notes but I just went along with what the others were getting. This place had to be pretty high end to be serving that sort of stuff, and considering the state of the service elevator being about the same quality as the elevator on Wolf's base, the rest of the building was probably top notch. Finally, the gears started to slow down and I heard the elevator coming to a stop. The lion remained behind as we stepped off and he was most likely going down to get our food.

There was only one door in the entire hall of the floor that we arrived on, like an apartment or some shit, and there were two guards at the door. One was a Fennec fox and the other was a gorilla, and the fox nodded towards us and opened the door to allow us in, and as soon as we broke through, the door was shut behind us.

I don't exactly know what I expected out of Mr. Webber when we arrived there, but I don't think I expected the Ravens to be led by an actual Raven, because the chair turned to reveal a large raven, slick black feathers, dressed in a navy suit. He was clearly a business man and he smiled as he saw the three of us then gestured to each of us in turn, "Wolf O' Donnell, Leon Powalski, and oh, my my, Fox McCloud," he said, and he smiled rather wide in response, "I'd seen the recent news concerning you, but no one seemed to have any clue where you went. I'd love to talk to you, pick a bit at you before we discuss details about the mission." I only felt the heat hitting my cheeks.

I didn't want to take the spotlight off Wolf, but he was looking at me expectantly and I probably had to kiss the guy's ass while we were there, so I just smiled and said, "Sure. Whatever you'd like to talk about." I didn't actually mean that, but there were lots of things I didn't want to talk about and listing them wasn't worth anyone's time at this point.

"Would any of you mind if I started now?" and Wolf and Leon shook their heads. Leon was probably relieved just to not be talking. I shook my head as well after a moment, realizing the question included me as well. "Well, then," he said, "What did your work at the Academy end up teaching you?"

"That I'm not very good at teaching," I said, immediately. This drew a smile from the raven, but this question was too easy to have been something he really wanted to know.

"But it led you to be in media's top followed relationship," he said, and even I didn't know that. "You were with little Ms. Phoenix for quite some time, I heard. A little over a year once you had left, right?"

"Yes. . ." and I didn't know where he was going with this.

"While the leader of the Ravens is myself," he said, "You'd think the leader of the Doves would be a dove, yes?" he asked. I gave a little nod at that, "He's not. Do you know where I'm going with this line of conversation."

I had an idea, but I didn't really want to acknowledge it. Instead, I said a, "Not really."

He put on his best sad face, "Following a fallout between him and Beltino Toad, Gary Phoenix made up for his tanking financial worth by turning his woes into profit on Zoness. You've heard that story before, right?" he asked, and I nodded. Fara didn't talk about her father much, but she looked up to him. That's why she went into flight, he was one of the original producers of the Arwing before Beltino became more prominent in the business end of the corporation, "We're not entirely sure if he's the primary head of the operation for the Doves, but the target for this mission is, in fact, Ms. Phoenix's father."

I sat there a moment. I waited for that feeling of emotional turmoil, of questioning, of that scream for me to turn my back on this mission and go back to Sargasso. . . it was home because I couldn't go home. The wave never came and I sat there with the chill of what used to be my conscience sitting there and just pondering the situation. Finally, I said, "Okay." The chilling professionalism that I had built in my time at the Academy was strong enough to make me accept the fact that I'd be killing Fara's father, and well, I had to be okay with that in the end.

He drummed his fingers on his chair, and a curious mix of approval and disappointment flashed over his face. He wanted a rise out of me, but he didn't come and say, 'Just kidding,' or anything else that would've made me feel better about myself. I didn't even feel bad about the fact that I'd have a hand in it, I felt bad for not feeling bad.

Wolf looked at me, and I realized he hadn't made the connection or hadn't been told the name, but he looked like he was at least a little bit concerned about me, or maybe for my response. Finally, the raven spoke again, "I'm surprised of you, Fox," he said, "Fara's pregnancy was confirmed last night and you seem to be perfectly okay with taking your child's grandfather."

I ran my hands over my thighs, and I forced myself to stay seated. If I stood, I'd charge at him, I'd wring his neck and we wouldn't get paid. I looked up at him as I found some disturbing eye of the storm, somewhere that I could be calm when I shouldn't be, "That kid will never know me considering my bounty. I regret that she'll be having him when I know I can't be a part of his life, but I'm not going to change the course of my life just so he will be okay from the experience." The words were painfully selfish, and I felt sick for speaking them, but I looked at Wolf again.

Something stirred in me for a moment, and I could feel the little bit of solidarity I had with the other male in that glimpse. He stood there and he just constantly looked over towards me making sure I was okay and that I would be okay, and I wasn't, I definitely wasn't but I wasn't going to have another mental breakdown in public. I had to steel my nerves and get ready for this because the last thing I should do is get the opportunity to finish the job and just stand there with the gun crying. It was kill or be killed.

My mind flickered back a bit, and I reflected on the fact that on top of it all, Wolf had kissed me. Something about looking at him reminded me of that, and I could feel my hand drifting towards my lips before I, once again, pulled it back. I hadn't bothered confronting him on it, I didn't even know how. Was it right to tell him I didn't want that and that I didn't like it when part of me had appreciated it. It'd be like saying that I hadn't enjoyed him licking the blood off my neck in the men's bathroom of a seedy bar. It was easier.

I tuned back into the air around me, looking for conversation, but we had fallen into silence from my words and were just waiting for our food before we discussed our mission in greater detail. The silence was uncomfortable, but it let me drift back to my thoughts without worry.

Every time I looked at Wolf, I saw the genuine concern that he had for me in his eyes. That wasn't something that was born over distant longing, at least not the ordinary kind of distant longing. From what Wolf had said, something had happened on Venom that had made him start to feel like this, but I don't remember anything like that, just the dogfight and then Wolf was off my radar. I was free to go fight Andross as I hoped to do all along and Wolf was out of the picture.

The looks that I gave him didn't seem to carry the same weight, but I still found myself looking at him. I wanted to try and see past what was there and begin to figure something out, but nothing came to me and I don't think anything ever would until he told me what I didn't know about my experience there. The more I sat on it, the more freaked out I became. I was a mess as it was, a bundle of nerves and I could cry at the drop of a hat, I probably would the moment I left this office.

I came back to after a few seconds, "Where's your bathroom?" and he gestured towards one of the doors at the back of the room. They were directly connected to his office, and I heard some movement behind me. I opened the door, holding it out for, most likely Wolf, and entered into the bathroom. It was massive, but it was for an individual, not two, and the larger male locked the door behind him as he stood there.

"Are you okay?" he asked, and that was a pretty big question considering everything. I was slowly unraveling but I had kept myself from going fully into shit while in the client's presence. I was probably already crying though, and I rubbed under my eyes to try and find the moisture and was only disappointed in myself when I did.

"No, not really," I said, and he gave an easy nod. It made me angry that he was concerned about me, but I appreciated the company. I turned towards the toilet and walked over. "I actually do have to use the bathroom, Wolf," I said.

"I'll just turn away," and he did after a few seconds and I let out a soft sigh before unzipping. I just stared into the water following the stream and traced lazy shapes with bubbles before I flushed and put my pants back on. I turned and the other male was looking towards me.

"Damn it, Wolf.

"Hey, I waited," and he had to stifle a laugh. I went to wash my hands and I stepped towards the door, but he wasn't moving. We had a good 10 minutes until the food came, but that wasn't any time to really do anything if that was what he had in mind . . . I'm not sure why I had it in mind either. That wasn't what I was here for, I was here to become a mercenary again and that just complicated things.

"I didn't know about Fara's dad," he said, "If you want to go back to Sargasso when we get out of here, you can.

"I don't want to, Wolf." He didn't seem convinced, not in the slightest. "If I go back, I'm gonna be left to my own thoughts and even though this mission may only take a day, I doubt I'd see you until tomorrow. That would be a night where I'm left stuck in a horrific nightmare with no schedule to force me out of it. Like it or not, I'm staying."

"What are they of?" He looked genuinely interested, but he only knew they were about Venom.

"When I saw my Dad," and again, he looked unfazed by it. I don't know what it was, but he seemed to accept it at face value all over again.

"Why would that be a nightmare, though?" he asked, and that was a good question.

"Because every time I see him, the moment I get out of that base, he's gone. If I see him in person, if I talk to him, he mocks me for trying to take over for him and tells me I'm not ready. He reminds me that I'm not an experienced pilot and it would take too many years in a ship for me to be good enough to manage that."

"But you are. . . " Wolf said, with easy clarity, "I have those years of experience and you're a damn good pilot, Fox," he said. It was easy to say it, but it was still nice to hear. Wolf had a right to talk on that, at least.

Wolf still didn't seem to be moving from the door, and I realized the longer I stood there, the more I didn't really care whether or not we were there. I found myself tipping back to that kiss, reflecting on how it felt and what had happened, that it had happened. It hurt my lips when he pressed against them but he was firm, and then I looked at him again.

"You kissed me," I said, and it was frank and it sounded like a blurt out realization, except that realization was taking place nearly 24 hours after it had occurred. Wolf just laughed, and he looked at me. That single violet eye caught me, and I felt myself drifting back to those thoughts. "I think I liked it," I said.

That line of thought had drawn Wolf into a silence that I hadn't been expecting. A long time ago, sexuality was a big deal, people were ashamed to be gay because they didn't want to sleep with men and have their species die out. The world had become too diverse to rely on species maintenance and we were similar enough that we could still have kids, crosses and the like. Because there were so many species that you couldn't breed with, it had become more acceptable for interspecies relations to be gay, and then it just grew and grew. I didn't even question it, but someone else some other time may have lost their mind at the realization that they liked a guy. I liked Wolf, for better or for worse.

When I accepted those words, when I really did, I leaned forwards and gave him the yin to his own yang-laden kiss. It was soft, it was slow, and I felt my eyes dim. I could feel Fara's lips, I could see her face behind my closed eyes, but I didn't want to. I just wanted this moment, and I wanted to see what it was like. Wolf was there, and I knew he was, and I wanted him to be. He was unforgiving in how much he wanted to make sure I was okay, and he didn't seem to leave my side unless I pissed him off. It was an emotional rollercoaster but I enjoyed the ride.

I pulled away. He smiled. I smiled. "The only thing guaranteed in life of a mercenary is the fact that you'll be driven to fight for another day," I said, an expression from an old tale on war.

"The most dangerous game is to find someone to fight for that flies his own flag. You never know when your flags will be on opposite sides," he said.

"But to fight for someone that flies their own flag gives you something new to fight for," I finished. It was dangerous to have anything to do with a mercenary that expected a tomorrow, but it was human to expect every opportunity at tomorrow and I wasn't going to give up tomorrow. However, I knew that tomorrow wasn't a guarantee so if for some reason I go to jail on this mission, I wanted to do that, at least once. I echoed that thought a moment later, "If I do end up going to jail for some reason or even die on this mission, if either of us do, I wanted to try that at least once."

He nodded, maybe out of the sadness that that was what drove me to do it, but he also understood in a way that no one else would. His eye was something to show for it. "You shouldn't have followed me into the bathroom, Wolf," I said with a little laugh. I could hear the door outside open, our food was there and we'd probably get questioned as to what we possibly could have been doing in a bathroom together for 10 minutes.

We emerged, one after the other from the room. I could still feel the tinge of tears on my cheeks and Wolf could probably still taste the kiss on his lips, and we just stood there a moment before we found seats. Leon looked first at me, then at Wolf, then his tongue extended out to taste the air. If he caught anything, he didn't seem to mention it before he gave another shake of his head. Mr. Webber didn't even seem to notice we'd been gone or in the same restroom, but instead focused on the food that was presented to him. Maybe it was for the best we just didn't talk about it for now, but I felt worse for the fact that I had given him that little bit of hope when there's a chance it could be gone in the next few hours.

I buried those worries into the food and focused instead on the task at hand. Fara would hate me.

–

 _Author's Note: And now we have the end of the next chapter, a little more Fox/Wolf action and a response to the kiss. Of course, the first kiss had some other repercussions, and we'll have information about Venom to look forward to in the coming chapters, but also Fara's father and other stuff. Chapter is still a touch shorter than the first two, but that's more or less fine because I have to have a lot of content in the next two chapters in particular and they'll be tougher to write as it is. Hope you all enjoyed, and again, please review. Thanks~_


	6. Farewell, Fara

_Author's Note: I'm moving at a relatively fast pace (I have been putting out 5000+ words every other day), but we're gonna be focusing on one of the major plot points: Venom, over the next few chapters and to get an idea of what's going on with these two. I'm playing a bit with basketcase Fox that's trying to reflect Wolf against bipolar Wolf who acts without thought of repercussion. If you have any specific comments on personality or things you think I've missed, feel free to attach them in reviews and I can try to pick them up and progress it a bit more wholly._

 _Thanks for reading~_

–

I rubbed a hand over my right eye as we were approaching the building. Star Wolf had gotten a hold of a handful of Andross' inventions due to their work on Venom, and one of them was an ocular lens. The lens was able to detect heat signatures, structural oddities, electrical currents, and other unique features. After some tuning, they were able to set it to work for missions like this one, ventilation shafts, people, security cameras, and other such things. I had set it in my eyes, and it sank in so quickly. It seemed to have some means of hooking to my eye, and that was to apparently keep it adhered, but it meant that the removal hurt and that the eye was nonfunctioning for a few days after the use.

Unfortunately, since it was Andross' invention, there was a massive list of side effects that came with it. It wasn't safe for the user because it didn't have to be, it wasn't tested and produced for safety. The lens, while in, would start to distort your image of reality. You had a harder time distinguishing between what you saw through the lens and what was actually there. It would quickly develop a migraine after it was approaching the 15 minute mark, and then it was unbearable to wear for most users following those 15 minutes. We needed it for too long. Leon had offered to wear it, but I wanted to prove myself. Wolf couldn't wear it because he only had one working eye left and he couldn't afford to not be able to use his eyes at all for any period of time.

Gary Phoenix ran a business on Zoness that seemed to be similar to the business that had been run by Mr. Webber. The main entrance brought us into a large hotel and no one paid us even a little bit of attention. Off to our left was a fully staffed and active bar, and to our right was a hall that seemed to lead to a pool or a spa of some sort. Some distance ahead, we could see the desk that handled check ins. We immediately turned left, going to the bar.

Apparently, the bar had blind spots in its camera system, but the issue was that it was incredibly packed. We couldn't start mowing down people just to make sure that we had an opening to get into some sort of position, so instead, I followed suit. Wolf walked up to the bar and ordered a scotch, but I didn't have enough time to even know what sort of drinks to order. Leon got something fruity and mixed, and I just asked, what they had on tap before getting a lager. It hurt to drink, but it somehow felt safer to be drinking it here than to be drinking it in the raven's office. We paid and moved on.

I looked towards Wolf and he looked back towards me, and after a second, we moved to find somewhere to sit. It was convenient that Leon wasn't a conversationalist, but I could see that any time that Wolf and I interacted, he was judging us harshly for every action we made. "I would pretend we're on a date, but I don't think Leon would appreciate acting out being the third wheel." I just shot a look at Wolf for that. I had kissed him back, sure, but it was just to see how it felt when it was done right. It felt good, but I hadn't dropped to a knee and asked him to be my only mercenary. It wasn't like that, but we had something to fight for. Maybe we could see what it was like after all.

"This place is really packed," I said, and I looked around for a moment. I noted the security cameras and got a bearing on the floor plans. This building had been up for purchase recently, and Mr. Webber had been in dealings to try and purchase it before he as outbid. He had received the floor plans from the lease holder, but they were two months old at this point. He was acting on the assumption that there no changes in the building, and that was a dangerous game. "11."

Wolf flinched. We had only been informed of 6 security cameras being in there, and that was nearly double. There weren't going to be any blind spots in this room, not with that count. "Fox, do you trust me?"

"Not quite as far as I can throw you, Wolf," he said, which was a little less than not at all, but it sounded nicer. He looked at me for a second.

"You might want to start. Someone recognized you already," he said and I felt my body freeze up. Anyone that we ran into could arbitrarily steal me and turn me in for my bounty. I was the most recognizable of us, Wolf didn't get those fangirls because he wasn't plastered in the news all the time. I didn't want to turn, and I felt myself freeze up for a second. The larger canine grabbed me and practically ripped me across the table and pulled me into another kiss. This one was different from the first two, it was desperate.

"Oh, I guess it's not him."

He let go after a few seconds. His eye was still open through the entire experience, trailing them as they walked away. Leon just chuckled. "It would've been easier to just let him go through that. It looks like they wanted autographs."

Wolf was blushing, but I had a feeling the kiss was only because he wanted to respond to what had happened in the bathroom, and if we spent our time constantly responding to each other's slight advances, we'd get a lot further than either of us should be going with the other. Although, that kiss, it felt comfortable and it felt like we knew each other a bit more that way. "It wouldn't have been a good thing if they had started a scene."

I paused a second before I echoed a stuttered, "Y-yeah." I didn't know what to say anymore. That hint of romance was terrifying, but I wanted to see it. I kept telling myself I couldn't do that, that I had loved Fara and I just left her and I was devastated to find out I had left her with my kid. It's not like I could ever look her in the eye again after what was about to happen. Being around Wolf made me forget those responsibilities a little though. "You're a terrible influence," and I took another drink before I stood.

I started to make my way towards the back of the room, scanning the area. The optics were already starting to bother me, and every object I spotted of note flashed a bright light in my vision. I squinted just to make out what they were out of reflex, but they were color coded. Electrical currents were marked by yellow, so a bright flash of yellow when I found a camera was entirely unwelcome but happened every time.

I looked directly at the ceiling, catching a pink glimmer in the air above and watching the chandelier just to look like I was only looking up out of curiosity as I took another drink. There was a ventilation system that ran above the room and it was connected to an area out of the room, extending out towards the central area. What little I could trail seemed to go towards the pool, so we may have another way to get in.

I took another sip of the drink, feeling the acrid taste catch my tongue and steal away some of my inhibitions. I sat back down at the table, "We should get a look at the pool and see if we should stay the night here," I said. We had to be careful about what we said, some of the cameras were audio and even if they weren't, a guest could always just rat on us for no reason other than a few minutes of fame. I ha had less than half of the glass left, and I chugged it. Wolf and Leon had finished theirs already and I set it on the table before I started to walk out of the bar. If we drank too much, we'd get messy and we could slip up.

As I hit the central hallway again, I drifted my gaze up and caught the trail of the ventilation system. It trailed into the public restrooms that were in that hall. "Let's go see," I said, gesturing down the hall, "Maybe we can get some more alone time before we go to the pool." I gestured towards the bathroom and Wolf just about burst out laughing, but the chuckle he'd managed was good, it was natural.

As far as I could tell, there was no security camera that hit these doors, at least not consistently. There was one positioned at the end of the hall for the pool that scanned between two hallways. It moved slow enough that it would be reasonable for someone's entrance to be seen, but not their exit. Of course, we'd be caught eventually because they would realize that, but it wouldn't look any worse than the fact that guards had seen us going into there in the first place. We couldn't afford to wait until the night and try to hit it when there were less people, because then all the people staying overnight would be in the bar and it'd be worse. There was nothing we could do perfectly here.

Once the camera had started to turn and we were out of its view, we started forwards towards the door, the three of us, and I turned and grinned at Wolf for a second, just in case anyone was watching, and I started to run. It was 20 feet until the door, and we had only a handful of seconds to get there. "Get back here," came from behind me, and Wolf was soon jogging and so was Leon. I threw the door open as I reached it and disappeared within, Leon and Wolf soon following. Once they were in, I let out a pained grunt, my head throbbing from the lens, but I had to keep going and I found the entrance to the ventilation.

"There's no security system on the vent," I said, and I stumbled for a second before I caught myself and started to try and regain control of myself. It was tough, but the side effects were mounting. The headache turned to a migraine and I was hallucinating even though I hadn't taken the lens off. I opened my jacket and it revealed the contents of my bag from earlier, all hooked into various strings and pockets that were present on the jacket for operations like this. I found the army knife and pulled it free from its position before I flicked through and found a screwdriver, popping the ventilation cover ff before I undid the screws for the grate.

Wolf was at my side, his hand sliding up my side in a touch that I wasn't ready for, but I just shivered as the chills raced. My hand twitched and then I pushed him away, looking over towards him. "Are you gonna be okay?" he asked. I wasn't, the lens was only supposed to be worn in 15 minute intervals and I had already passed that by at least 5 minutes. I was dizzy, I could puke, but we were on a time table because the guards had a rollover period in about 20 minutes. It meant that the room just outside his office, where the service elevator would arrive, would be empty for a few minutes as the new guards had to wait for the elevator we used.. We could get in and conceal ourselves before the guards had any chance of responding properly. They would die too, then we would be free from this game.

"No," I said, and looked at him. He didn't look right, but I couldn't put my finger on it, "But we have to finish this," he said. There was a hood that was in our kit, it had clipped onto my jacket and closed at the front. I pulled it over my face, hiding me mostly from sight as I cinched it shut and secured it there.

"I can wear the lens, Fox," he said, a soft murmur.

"The only other person here that can wear the lens is Leon. You can't afford to damage your eye, Wolf," I said. I was firm, and the grate cover was off. "We're on a short schedule, come on." I climbed into the grate, and I heard a whistle behind me. I couldn't even tell him to grow up before I started crawling. We were taught to army crawl for grates like this, so that you minimized the noise you produced since you dragged and pushed instead of propelling yourself forward with movements that forced you to lift your body. I did just that, and I could hear the echo around me but it wasn't that bad.

I was over straining myself, I could feel it, and I could feel the cool sweat that was starting to cling to my fur as I tried to repress the feeling that was washing over me and telling me to stop. This was tough, but after a little bit, I had managed to navigate us through the winding system and through until we had reached the grate over the service elevator. It had taken 15 minutes, but we were resting so close to our next step.

It was then that I realized just how bad I was getting. The grate was relatively plain, it seemed long, but it wasn't something that freaked me out. . . looking down to the room below was a little more freaky. The tiles slid and melted, a pool of cool liquid below. It shifted like waves, and my ears flicked as I heard the crashes that it brought too. The door could never open to the growing tide, it was dangerous, and the elevator looked like it was being damaged by the flow. I winced. It wasn't real, that was a floor.

I froze, though, and I could see the outline of a security camera immediately below me. I reached into my jacket, trying to find anything that could handle that without opening the grate. We couldn't open it yet. The wires weren't running through the vent, they were most likely separated to avoid damage from pests, and I eventually realized that there was only one real way for me to handle it. I took my gun out and I counted down in my head through the next 3 minutes, so there'd be a minute and a half until the guards swap and our opening would happen.

I crawled a bit further forward and angled myself, taking a quick shot at the cord on the camera and cutting its connection. The burn from the blaster would land on the wall. The cameras should be run through a security room that's located near the front desk. It wouldn't take them long to notice, but it would take longer to respond. My vision went white for a second, and I was brought back when I felt a shove to my boot. I heard the door close, the guards were switching over, and I slammed the grate down as I full on fell from it, not able to stick the landing. I rolled out of the way as Leon and Wolf followed me, and I stumbled into the elevator, but the side effects were worsening.

I went to press the button for the elevator to close and go, but I missed the button as my body lurched a bit. The ground was moving again, whispering as it started to wrap my feet. I couldn't move, it was getting worse, but I started to lift my feet as the red rug below ripped and clung to my feet. I stumbled again, but someone else had gotten the button and if it weren't for the growing red roots that had caught my feet, I'd have fallen when the elevator stopped. I felt a push at my back and I stumbled forwards, I was free, but I couldn't see what I was even walking on anymore. The room was so dark, the only thing that was at the other end was a hallway. I knew it wasn't real, the images were too different to even be reasonable if I'd been high, but they were there and they were tormenting me.

The rollover for the shift would take about a minute and then they'd be up. The security protocols on Zoness were pretty uniform. Expecting more from employees could result in jail time, which was almost hysterical on Zoness since most everyone was a criminal of some sort, but employees gave the bare minimum they needed to get through their job. I about fell, but we each stood at the door, and I gestured for them to open it.

Once the door was open, I didn't even think about anything but my shot. The lens corrected it, it jolted me as I straightened my arms and I took a shot, and it soared through in a bright explosion of red until it cut down the man across the room. Blood caught the window behind him, but I couldn't bring myself to move. We were supposed to go in and conceal ourselves, take out the guards once they came in, but I couldn't do it, I couldn't move. "Fox?" it was etherial and I tried to turn, but that didn't seem to work either.

"Fox?" the voice repeated itself, and I turned and looked. The darkness that was consuming me seemed to consume everyone around me. I could hear his voice, I knew it was Wolf, I was sure if I could reach out, I'd be able to touch him. My arms didn't move in that direction though, they resisted as if I'd lost control of them. That was a possible side effect, I think, loss of motor control. I should've fallen and been caught by one of them, but my body refused even that pleasantry for just a moment longer than I wish it would have.

The sounds surrounded me, then I felt something touch me, my body reacted as I suddenly collapsed. I couldn't move, I could barely breathe, and then I felt a hand at my eye and ripping the lens out. I screamed, the film that had been covering my eye ripping away as I tried to blink the tears away from the sudden shock of pain. It rooted itself on your eye so it didn't shift, and once removed, it felt like you had a layer of skin ripped off, but it was your eye, there shouldn't be anything to be ripped off. When I opened my eyes again, I could feel it setting in. The room was darker than it was before, and growing, and as I looked around, all I could catch were ashy silhouettes of my squadmates and when I tried to touch them, they broke to pieces. I could still hear them, their mouth was still their, floating and out of my reach. "Move it, Fox. If you stay there, you'll get killed."

I didn't know what to do, I couldn't figure out what was happening, and I suddenly broke into a sprint. I wasn't trying to run away, but my body did it anyways, I still didn't have control. I don't even remember thinking about it, but I felt my body break the window that her father's glass had decorated and the air that I was suddenly caught in burned my flesh, or burned the cuts I had gotten on the way out. I heard a scream from behind me, but I knew I could do it, and I pulled a grappling rifle from my jacket. The building had been 60 stories, I could feel the ground rapidly approaching, but I fired and I was suddenly yanked across the street and through the third story window of another building.

I still couldn't figure out what was going on, but I could feel eyes on me. I was covered in blood, I could smell it, and a lot of it was his but some of it was mine. I wrapped my body in my jacket quickly, not sure who had a chance to recognize me, and as I ran, I hit every door and wall on my way out. When I made it across the hall, I realized I couldn't find an elevator in time before I turned my body and broke through another layer of glass. This time, when I fell, I fell into an alley. I had some good luck, I didn't hit the ground, instead landing into a large dumpster. It reeked, but I hadn't broken any bones. I closed my eyes and held them as shut as I could get them, my vision couldn't be trusted anymore.

I had to move, I couldn't stay still, and when I broke from the dumpster, I could hear commotion in one direction. I turned and ran in the opposite, and I never took a break to stop, to figure out where I was or where I was going, but I was panicking, and I could feel my heart beating a mile a minute. When I finally reached a destination, it wasn't what I expected because there wasn't ground beneath me anymore and I was falling again until I felt the hot waters of Zoness surrounding me. They stun against my wounds, and I wanted to scream, but I floated there, kicking and flailing against the water as I found shadows, the water cooler and I kicked around to figure out where it was from. . . a dock. I clung to the pole and began to shimmy up the pole until I was mostly above the water.

I didn't know what to expect, what was going to happen, but getting out of the water was just about as bad as staying in. I clung to the pole, my eyes opened, and it was terrifying all over again. My eyes caught sight of a bottomless darkness beneath me, black and inky and creeping as it crawled along the wooden pole. Yeah, the vision wasn't good yet, I closed my eyes but I could still see it and it didn't seem to make me feel any more comfortable to keep telling myself it wasn't real.

I felt a hand at the back of my neck after 10 or so minutes and I went limp as I was ripped from the pole. I heard screaming, screaming was good. "What the fuck?" I mean, probably good. That was Wolf, I think, and I extended a hand. I felt another hand close over it and I was being led to some form of safety, or a prison, hopefully safety. The fact that the walk quickly turned into a run and I was suddenly in a dark room. . . alcohol, it was Wolf. It was someone that wasn't taking me to jail.

My body crumpled back to the floor as I felt a hand crash against the side of my head. I started coughing, and when I opened my eyes, my vision was better. I'd gotten hit hard enough to put my head back on straight for a little bit, and I looked up. He looked like my dad, and I started crying uncontrollably, sobbing as I just sorta sit there. It was a bar, there was no one else there except the bartender right now. I was pulled back to my feet and into a hug.

I couldn't handle the smell that hit my nose, hickory and sandalwood. It was his scent, the scent that clung to all of his collars as he sprayed a soft cologne to make sure he smelled distinct. Fox musk only naturally mixed with wood scents, and his dad had always worn them, they were always so distinct and so nice. I tried to push, I tried to find my might to break away again. I wasn't dead yet, but I couldn't fight anymore and I felt myself slipping into sleep and that scared me horribly. Sleep couldn't bring anything good to me right now.

 _The explosion consumed me. Andross fell back into the void as my ship rocked. He screamed for my life, "If I go down, I'm taking you with me," and the walls around me shook with a terrible force. A massive explosion caught my ship, the systems started to give out. The next hit sent me jerking forwards, I hit the glass of the cockpit and stars flew across my vision. I could taste blood, I could taste death on my lips and white started to crawl into my vision. Everything was gone and in that void, I could feel my father so close._

" _Don't ever give up, my son," and it returned. It was his voice. I knew this script._

" _This isn't real," I said. I refused the script. I was stronger, I don't know how, but as the light started to dissipate around me, I saw his ship, I saw my hands move in their decisive action to save my life and I started to follow the ship. The darkness that was consuming me was hard to navigate, and I pulled into the tunnel in front of me. I wasn't even sure his ship was in front of me. "You're not real. How could you still be alive? How did you get to me?"_

" _Fox, we have to get out of here." My eyes widened, my vision was still foggy, but that wasn't the script. His voice was distinct, but it didn't feel right. "Fox, follow me, we have to get out of here. The base is coming down." The corridor in front of me caught flame and I pushed through it, the Arwing was giving in. The ship turned sharply towards the side, "Stay close, I know the base. The defenses blew out certain corridors."_

 _I felt my ears pin to the top of my head. I followed him, even though my body was screaming to just give up and to stop flying, to dip into the corridor and go up in a bloom of flame. I gave in to the motions and eventually, I emerged from the blast door. The ship was gone, but this was different. As I emerged, I felt silence creeping over me. They asked if I was okay, but I wasn't, and we started our way back to the ship._

–

 _I stood there and looked over her. She was still beautiful, but she was cold. I looked down for a second, and I could see a younger version of me, bright green eyes and a bright smile. That's how I used to look before the war had started, but the world wasn't any better of a place out of war. People still died. "I'm sorry," I said. People did still die._

" _Not in front of Marcus," and the name sounded right, but he didn't seem to care about what we were saying. He had found a model toy of an Arwing somewhere, he was flying it around, and I leaned down and scooped him up into my arms and lifted him before propping him on my shoulders. He was light as a feather. Her eyes were so tired._

" _How's the academy?" She looked happy for a moment, but in a sad way if that made sense. Her eyes hung but they still glittered with hope._

" _I stepped down after my 2 years," she said, and it made it sound like 2 years would be a tradition._

" _Oh?"_

" _Jinx is taking over the program." We both smiled. She was such a sweet girl and she cared so much about getting through it and making good on all the expectations everyone else had of her but she should never have had to try and live up to our expectations. She should've just been living up to her own._

 _A silence crept over us, I didn't know what to say. I looked at her, and she just looked more and more happy by the moment. I murmured another, "I'm sorry," and I brought Marcus back down to the ground and set him there. She looked like she was on the verge of tears._

" _Farewell, Fara." Those words meant so much more than 'Goodbye.'_

–

 _My vision caught a bit and I turned, and in the darkness of the room, I could see his frame. He was sleeping so soundly, he didn't even snore. I don't know why I knew that, but he had taken off the eye patch to sleep and I couldn't help but stare at the scar that was left there. The sun had risen, though, and I leaned over and kissed that soft flesh in respect for what he had experienced. He stirred and I trailed another kiss to his lips, he just scratched his bare belly and stood from the bed. He pulled his pants on and stretched against the spanning glass that exposed the bright flames of Solar in the distance._

" _Did you sleep well?" he asked, but I should've asked him first. I woke up first. He turned a little bit, and he was there and he was beautiful. His body looked like mine, but thicker. Scars decorated his flesh here and there, he was more seasoned than I was. I laid in the bed, the bed pulled around me as my tail flicked lazily behind me._

" _Mmm, of course, you were there," I said, and I gave a soft smile. I stood and I couldn't help but take my time getting dressed before I started towards the door. "Do you want to go grab something to eat really quick and then we can figure out what we want to do today?"_

 _He smiled a little bit, shuffling around through a pile of clothes and sniffing each of them until he found a shirt that was decent enough to be seen in. He pulled it on, but it was mine and it was snug as hell on him. "Shit," he said, and we both laughed._

" _You only put it on because it smells like me," I said, and he gave a little shrug before he left the room still wearing it. He looked nice in it. "Just don't rip any seams," I said, and then we opened the door and I broke through the barrier._

–

 _I looked at myself in the mirror, it felt like so long since I had done that last. My snout had caught a touch of grey, the red fur rusty and cool after years of service. My face and body looked like Wolf's did now, not in fitness, but in the growing presence of scars. My eyes still functioned, I could see from both, but the vision was foggy and fractured. I could see a film that had developed from scarring. I had used the lens too often and too long and it had damaged the eye irreversibly. Similar damage was present in the other, I had continued after I had ruined one eye._

 _I brought up a comb and started to comb through my hair. There wasn't much, but I worked the knots out and I peered around the room for a moment. It was small, but it wasn't on a ship anymore, just comfortable. There were framed pictures on my desk. A young fox, like me. . . it must've been Marcus. Wolf was there, and I'm sure there was one of Fara at some point, but it was only the two of them. I had to get dressed, though, and I wasn't sure why._

 _I turned towards the door, my clothes were there. My heart sank a moment because the clothes were all an inky black and I knew that I was dressing for someone's funeral. I turned back towards the table and I could've only been invited to two funerals. I don't want either of them to be dead._

–

" _He was such a fine young man. He wanted to go in his father's footsteps and he hoped to save the galazy."_

" _He was an immense asset in the Lylat Wars and without his intervention, we would've never won."_

" _He strayed after the Lylat Wars because he missed flying. We took it away from him to give him an opportunity but it turned out he didn't want it at all."_

" _Once the invasion began, we were all surprised to see that Star Wolf intervened immediately. They had bounties on their heads, but Pepper waived them to make sure that they could fight in the war. He had faith in Fox."_

" _Just a few years later, the next attacks came and Star Wolf had become a dominant force for saving the galaxy. There was no Star Fox, we put them to retirement early to give them comfortable lives."_

" _If we hadn't ended Star Fox, we would've lost valuable military leaders."_

" _Those leaders were all lost to some conflict or another over the years. Eventually, only one crew member was left alive from the Star Fox crew."_

" _The mantle of the galaxy seemed to always fall on this young man. He carved his own path."_

I shook awake and my vision was clear. I could hear breathing, I couldn't tell where I was, but it smelled like medicine. I turned, and I winced because I was on a machine that was trying to keep me stable. I was covered in stitches, hands, chest, face, maybe legs and elsewhere. I turned regardless and he was there, just like the dream, bare-chested and holding me.

I rubbed at the scarred eye for a second, I was too nervous to reach out and kiss him for fear of getting bitch slapped or something of the sort, but he stirred a little bit. He looked at me, and he looked like a puppy when he saw me. "Did you sleep well, Wolf?"

His expression soured a moment, like he had remembered something. "We need to talk."

–

 _Author's Note: And we've hit dream sequences. This chapter was a little slower because last-minute things before I go back to school. Gonna go ahead and power through one last one before Monday, most likely, and that'll be on the longer side because it's exploring a major plot point._


	7. The Truth of Venom

_Author's Note: I did successfully write a handful of chapters, but also, semester meant that I couldn't really go through and start to iron them out. I've started back in classes, I have free time for sure every other weekend, potentially more, that I'll be working on editing stuff and putting it together for publication over the two weeks until I have that opportunity again. So, without further ado, here's the next chapter._

–

My expression turned sour too, a thousand things running through my head because my reaction in the end wasn't fitting to a stealth mission. I had more or less guaranteed that I was on the front page of the news as a massive criminal, but as I searched that violet eye for some sort of sign, I didn't see disappointment, just the blank stare that accompanied the rising scent of guilt and anxiety in the room. "Wolf. . ." I started, looking at him. Even though I had leaned up to try and move, he hadn't completely let go of me, his arm hooked to my waist and refusing to let go. "What do you want to talk about?"

"It's not the mission, Fox," he started, and I expected more words to come, but they weren't coming and I found myself staring just as blankly back at him. The silence crept and I could feel the periodic clench of his digits against my hip as claws dug against scarred flesh and my mind couldn't help but drift to other thoughts at just his touch.

I couldn't keep pushing him, he wasn't budging, "How long was I out?" He looked me over for a second, and I knew it had to have been longer than a few hours since the other male smelled a mess. "I can tell it's been at least one day, you either haven't showered or you've worked yourself into a frenzy," I murmured. The scent signals weren't as distinct as a feral animal would be able to pick up, but Wolf was giving it off in spades that he didn't seem to offer up verbally. I could practically taste the scream on his lips, but I knew he wouldn't yell at this point.

"You've been out for 3 days," he said, looking away from me, "The mission went well, all things considered, and our job was executed correctly for the information that we were given. We received full pay if not a little bit of. . . well, he seemed to enjoy the idea of you going Tarzan above multiple lanes of traffic," he said, and he broke from the embrace. He turned and grabbed a box off the table, "I finished getting you a proper badge for being here."

I watched him a moment, trying to make sure he wasn't fucking around with me. I had royally fucked up, I killed the guy then lost control of myself and jumped through multiple windows just to find salvation. "It's not just that,' he murmured, though, breaking my rapidly-spiraling train of thought as I stared at him

"What is it, Wolf?" He stared again, but the words were on the tip of his tongue. He seemed to be ready as he'd ever be, and the sight of him afflicted by nerves wasn't expected.

"Venom."

"Venom?"

"Venom." We held eye contact, I needed more information, but he didn't seem to offer it immediately. Instead, I saw something I had never expected from the renegade leader—a tear. His eyes were glassy and he started to lose it in his own way, a sullen face decorated by the periodic line of a tear trailing down along his jaw. "I have to tell you about Venom and what happened there. I can't handle you being on the team with us if I don't be honest with you."

I had held myself back for a second, but I couldn't resist, "What could you tell me about Venom that I don't know already?" To be fair, it was probably a lot, but Wolf disappeared after we'd had our dog fight above Andross' base. Wolf stared at me a moment longer, his mouth periodically opening but the words didn't seem to come so easily.

I turned a bit to glance at his hands, his claws prodding a bit at my skin. I could see the faintest trail of blood there and I don't even remember the puncture. I had to be on painkillers still, and I looked back at him, his ears flagged in an apology. "There's a lot I don't think you remember," he admitted.

"Like what?"

"It wasn't your dad that saved you, Fox," he said, "I don't want to take away the dream, but it wasn't your dad that saved you."

"What the fuck do you mean, Wolf?" I started, and I could feel my hackles rising, I could hear Peppy's words drifting lazily at the back of my mind. "I thought you believed me?" and I had drifted so close to his face in the rising scream that I found myself stuttering at the warmth, "W-what do you mean?" and my voice fell. This topic, every time it came up I tried so hard, but I just fell apart again.

"After you had gone in on Venom, your team recovered us from the ground," he started, "They were desperate to find a way in and they knew that we would know that information. . ." his voice was soft, and I forced myself to back away. I nearly fell from the bed in the process, but it wasn't terrible. "Oikonny and Dengar had already fled at that point, God knows how they got off the planet, but Leon and I were still down there."

–

 _The Wolfen had caught fire around me, trying to explode with me in it. I tried to open the canopy but the crash had broken the audio control of the ship, I would have to break it to get out and I couldn't do that to this ship. I lost, so I guess I would die here too. Instead, I started to engage the emergency systems, taking a deep breath as I felt a blast of warm air. The ship had been equipped with CO_ _2_ _extinguishers in case the interior caught fire, and I could definitely feel the fire behind me. After a minute, the entire canopy would be loaded with it, and then it would vent oxygen back in._

 _Once the interior fire had subsided, the heat crawling away from my back, I could feel a cooler air start to push through again and I let out a choked gasp. The electrical system came back online, shakily, but I murmured, "Hatch unlock," and I felt the click of it before I pushed the glass away. The rest of the ship was still burning a little bit, but the emergency systems had managed to put out the more dangerous locations. It wouldn't blow up so long as they kept running._

 _I slipped from the ship, literally as well as I fell onto the surface of Venom. I tried to pull myself up, but I found myself being pulled up instead and the cool, telling touch of metal against the bottom of my chin as I was held against someone's front. They were heavier, and if I could turn, I'm sure I would see Peppy. "Fox just went into the planet and you're gonna tell us how to follow him. That blast door is closed and there's no way a base like that only has one entrance."_

 _My voice hurt from the bit of smoke I had breathed and I could feel the rasp on my tongue as I said, "You don't need a gun to get that out of me," I said, "Andross told us the next time we go down in his employment will be the end of our employment by him." We weren't members of the military that Andross had anymore. "Where's Leon?" Even if Dengar and Oikonny were here, I didn't care to see them all that much anyways._

" _Falco has him," and I turned a bit and bared my teeth._

" _That jackass better not shoot him," I said. Peppy laughed, but it was probably just to diffuse the situation a little. I twitched a bit, wanting to take the gun and turn it on him, but I opted to not make the situation worse and just relaxed a little bit. "Only other entrance will shoot you down," he said, "Ships in his fleet are marked with an ID that allows them in. Any unapproved entry is hit by the sentry guns just inside and no, there's no way to avoid them._

" _We can take your ships then."_

" _You can't fly my ship, it's adapted to work with my eye," I said, and he grimaced but seemed to accept the explanation._

" _One of us can fly Leon's, then," he said._

" _Still a no-go. I know the base inside and out and I know how to get to where that blast door led. There needs to be two people that know it inside and out because someone has to open that blast door too. That's the only way Fox can leave that base."_

 _The insistent chill of the gun twisted and pushed against the underside of my jaw. It was a strange pain and it made me cough. Slippy walked past me and opened the hood of my ship, going right at it with the tools he had been carrying with him. "Leon's ship is as repaired as it's going to get on the ground, if you give me a minute, I can fix Wolf's too," he said._

" _Why were you fixing their ships?"_

" _I had a feeling that their security wouldn't really let us be going in with ours. Andross didn't get this far into the war for lack of intelligence," he said, and I could hear him cursing under his breath. At least the fire seemed to be gone from what I could see, or Slippy was just working directly in the fire. Probably the former, but the toad seemed determined._

 _Only a few minutes passed, and in that span, Peppy had lowered the gun from me. I turned and found Leon in a similar situation before Falco let him go too. They seemed to be in agreement, if not at least a little bit bitterly about it. "You trust me?" I asked._

" _No, but if that blast door really is gonna stay closed without someone going in and opening it, then there's no choice. Even if you betray us, Fox would be dead anyways. It's better a small chance than no chance at all." He paused a second, but the gun was against my throat again, "But you better believe that if Fox doesn't come out of there and the two of you do, that the next time I see you, I'm killing you both." I nodded, and the gun was pulled from me again._

 _The ships were in good enough shape. Slippy had stepped aside from my ship, not immaculate but definitely better off for the attention. I looked towards Leon, and gave a slight nod before he turned as well and started his way towards his ship. As I slipped back into the cockpit, I could feel my hands shaking and I knew that there was nothing good to come out of this, but we had made a deal. Mercenaries kept their word until someone could pay them something more. Maybe this could pay us in our dignity._

 _We pulled straight to the sky before looping back towards the surface. The Wolfen kissed the grass and trees as we pressed over the tortured land beneath us and I could see the water on the horizon. As we approached, we submerged immediately and my ship rocked with the pressure that suddenly surrounded us. It was only 100 feet down before we veered and slid into a tunnel beneath the water's surface. We were suddenly surrounded in pitch black darkness. There was emergency lights here before but the base must be in such bad shape that it doesn't even have power routed to those. "Be careful."_

" _We've flown this plenty, Wolf," Leon said. He returned to silence, and we drifted through the tide. I counted under my breath. Each second that passed drew my hackles up, I was anxious that we'd hit a wall or that something may have blown up and we'd crash into an unseen object. We could turn the lights on on our ship, but the chance of a security drone being in there and willing to shoot us was just the same problem._

 _Eventually, I could see a light flickering from a corridor above us in the distance, and I knew we'd found our exit. I veered up as we reached it and the water parted as we were suddenly in a shaft and I was just glad that I wasn't dead. I looked around. "You know where the blast door controls are, right, Leon?"_

" _Going after Fox?"_

" _Yeah. He'll be suspicious of me, but I think he'd shoot you without questioning it." Leon hummed in acknowledgment, and he veered off towards the blast door controls as we passed that corridor. Soon after, I veered into the complex as well. This was a docking port, sure, but it wasn't designed for flight. Pillars veered in my way and I wove between them, the periodic banner threatening to catch over my glass and blind me. Andross had built an empire underground and I could see the deserted streets below. They had either flown into combat against Star Fox's campaign or they had evacuated._

 _Another turn brought me into a series of long metallic corridors, taking a sharp right at the first one before I veered back and forth, navigating the tubes. I could hear explosions from the interior, I could feel the base beginning to shake around me. A jet of fire suddenly engulfed my ship and I flinched as I slid into a barrel roll to try and keep some of the heat from me. I emerged without blowing up, but it was into a massive chamber. Fox's ship was descending slowly to the ground below and Andross was nowhere to be found._

" _Fox, are you alive in there?"_

 _I was met with silence, I stared at his ship. I hit my comm channel, I could see he was on the frequency._

" _God damn it, Fox, move," and I flew closer._

 _I still didn't get a response, but I was entirely in the lab. There were a few seconds before the ship started to jerk back to life._

" _Fox, we have to get out of here!"_

" _Father!?" I flinched. What did he hear?_

 _I wanted to say no, but I didn't want him to be any more disoriented than he would be. "Stay close, I know the base. The defenses blew out certain corridors." I closed the comm link with Fox for the time being, isolating the link with Leon. "Leon, how long is it going to take to get those doors open?"_

 _I heard a grunt from the other side of the line, "It's fine, just a few seconds longer. I'm getting out of this base once it's open. Everything here's catching fire."_

" _Be careful."_

 _I turned back towards the ship behind me. I had to weave through the corridors, and each time I looked I found that one of them was erupting in flames. I turned, barely clearing some of the turns but I was getting out. Fox was muttering something in the ship behind me and I let out a soft huff._

 _After a little bit, I saw the opening of the blast door and I broke into the open sky. Now I could leave and Fox could return to his life._

–

He finished speaking and I found myself just staring at him. "Wait. . ." I said, and I tilted my head. I could feel it heavy in my throat, the words refused to leave, if they were words at all. I actually felt like I was going to puke, like something had been ripped away from me and I stared at him and he was crying. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you told me that you saw your dad," he said, and he let his eyes dim down, "You saw me as him again, when I found you at the dock on Zoness." His voice was soft, choking under the weight of the guilt that the other male hardly deserved to feel.

I didn't know what to say, but I knew what my body was telling me to do, and I found myself pressed so close to him I could feel every line of his body. I was screaming internally, the memory shattered by the admission, but I was scared to pull away. I could feel his heart racing against my chest and I was pressed against his body so close. This kiss was different, like it had gained some honesty behind it that hadn't been there before and I liked it. I let out the softest exhale before catching my breath. I pressed deeper with my tongue, and he let out a soft groan.

Some part of me felt the strongest bond with Wolf in that moment, and the closer I got to him, the more electric that feeling was. I thumbed at the zipper of his pants, "What are you doing, Fox?"

"Thanking you," I said, and I smiled. His ears pinned, he blushed, but he didn't protest a moment. Unlike with Fara, making love with Wolf was electric. We cried out in unison and I crumpled to his body just to feel it against mine.

I was pinned to him letting my muzzle pepper his jawline in kisses laced with an afterglow, and I murmured a soft, "I'll love you yet," and he laughed softly for a moment.

"We'll see about that. I could always reveal some secret about me and you could run away."

"Didn't you think I'd do that with this?" He nodded, I smiled, and he slipped up to get back into his clothes. I slipped back into my own, whatever I had shed onto the ground next to the bed to serve as clothes, and I wrapped my arms around his hips as I slipped next to him. I swung to his front and planted another firm kiss on his lips, and I could smell the pheromones that had bore down over the room. "Maybe this will make the nightmares stop," I said.

"What'd you dream about when you were out anyways?" I felt heat hit my cheeks. They were hazy, sure, but I knew what I dreamt about clearly.

"Some dreams, some nightmares," I said.

"Like what?"

"Like what we just did," I said. He looked at me, trying to gauge if I was serious, but he just smiled a moment. There were bits of the jackass persona that Wolf had put on chipping away, and I was glad for it at the very least.

"Not a nightmare, right?"

"No."

Something at the back of my head still burned. I was trying to piece back together my memory according to what he had told me. The image had felt hazy to begin with, I was concussed at the very least from the explosion. It was understandable that I'd hallucinate, but I wanted to believe that my dad had been there, though, even if he hadn't been, I was less upset to think that it was someone else than to be no one at all.

I ran my fingers through my hair and stood, the first time since I'd been back from the mission and every part of my body immediately screamed louder than the painkillers could silence them, "What the hell," and I started to tip forward. Wolf skirted the bed until he caught me in one of his arms.

"We haven't had the opportunity to repair any of the internal damage since you've been back. You kinda need to be awake to consent to the procedure and stuff," he said. "You probably didn't feel it on the bed, since you didn't put pressure on it, but you have some hairline fractures in your legs and ankles from the impact." I nodded and he just scooped me up and set me back in the bed.

"What would you do to fix it?"

"We have some more advanced medical technology on board. The most efficient is a nanotech approach. We inject your body with nanotech, they're able to synthesize bone tissue locally and repair it. You might grow an eighth of an inch in the process, or whatever, but it's fast and you'd be back on your feet in 30 minutes."

"Or?"

"Splint and painkillers. We can put you in crutches or a boot to get you around. We didn't really bother with anything in between since no one had a real issue with the nano stuff."

"Then yeah, I can try it." He nodded and stepped across the med bay. It wasn't unlike the Great Fox, it felt like home in some good ways and Wolf.

"What else did you end up dreaming about? You said there were others, right?" he said, rummaging through the drawers on the opposite side of the room. My ears pinned a moment, because several of the other things were nightmares.

"I think I was starting to remember that it was you, not my dad," I started.

"Hmm?"

"Well, when you were telling me the story, when you were there in the base, those were the words I heard in the most recent dream. When it was my dad, it was 'Never give up, my son,'" and I felt my ears pin again as a wave of grief started to hit me again. I'd heard those words from him so many times, it felt so nice to hear them again.

"I'm sorry, Fox," and the rummaging stopped. He had found whatever he was looking for and started walking back towards me.

"It was nightmares, though, for the most part," I said, "I saw Fara, I saw. . ." I paused for a second. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, "I saw a fox kit that looked a hell of a lot like me. Fara used to talk about how much she wanted to have kids. She really liked the name Marcus, and that was his name. I got to see him, I got to hold him but he was like air in my arms," I said, "And I knew that when I said goodbye to Fara after that that it'd be the last time I'd see them."

Wolf was pausing a second, looking at me as he held one of the most terrifyingly long needles I'd ever seen. Blood drained from my face, and I felt clammy, but I gave a firm nod to betray that bit of anxiety. He lifted my leg gently before puncturing just below the back of my knee as I felt molten-hot fluid flowing into me. I writhed a bit, trying to keep from kicking my leg, but Wolf's hand held me down firmly through the process. "It only takes a few seconds," he said, and soon, he pulled the needle free from me as I felt my blood starting to spill again. He pulled a wrap of gauze from his pocket and quickly wrapped my knee.

"Then I had a nightmare of my own death," I said, "But it wasn't bad. I could hear Pepper and Peppy and everyone talking about how I'd done well, how we'd done well. It sounded like they'd forgiven me for what I'd done." Wolf looked at me for a second, nodding as he taped the gauze. He rubbed easily over the bare part of my knee just above the dressing before he turned again. There was one dream left, but I had a feeling in my gut that I had had a nightmare about going to Wolf's funeral, not Marcus'. I held that panic at the back of my mind.

"Sounds like a lot to experience, but you were out for a while, so it makes sense," he said, then he looked towards the door. "I'm gonna go take a shower really quick. I'll be back in about 20 minutes, and about then, you should be about good to start moving around if you want to get one yourself." I gave a shake of my head at that.

"I'm gonna need help getting cleaned up, Wolf, and you've already seen me naked," I said, and I grinned easily at that. He just looked back at me, taking it completely seriously as he just gave the slightest nod.

"I'll be back in a few seconds, then."

He vanished, returning soon after with two large, incredibly comfortable looking towels and a little basket with toiletries. He gestured towards the opposite side of the room, and there was a small door there, "There are showers in there that we can use, but the med bay also has a couple of tubs as well, which is probably better considering your condition."

"I don't want a sponge bath, Wolf," I said, peering back at him.

"I wasn't offering," he said, "But you can't take a shower with all your stitches. You'll probably get an infection just from the bath but you need one."

I glared at him for a moment, but he just grinned back. "Can't you just adjust the shower head to have a lower pressure? I'm not gonna get clean enough from a bath." He shrugged a moment.

"I've never tried to change the water pressure in those. You're free to try it, and if you figure it out, sure," he said. I grinned, but rather than waiting the 30 minute, he seemed to want his shower now and scooped me up. I winced as his hand caught behind my knee, right against that puncture wound from the so-called needle before, but he seemed to have no issue carrying me.

I just turned and relaxed against him, trying to keep myself calm for the time being. I had a tendency to lose my shit at the drop of a hat, so it was nice to just have a really pretty view of a rather muscular wolf carrying me across the room. He looked down, making eye contact with me before laughing as my eyes drifted back towards his chest. "You never told me if I'd fucked up the mission on your standards, by the way."

"First missions are tough. You had a lens in way, way longer than you should've had it in. Leon should've taken it over instead of letting you keep at it, but you should've also stopped when you hit your limits," he said, giving a slight shrug as we pushed through the doorway. I peered out towards the showers, and plenty of them had chairs for the vertically challenged individuals like myself, and he set me down in one and stripped me before he started fiddling with the shower head.

"I'm still a mercenary though. That wasn't my first mission, I should've done better."

"The only thing that matters for a mercenary is to do their job and to not get caught if the job isn't quite to legal standards." I nodded, he was right about that much at least, "You did your job, you proceeded to jump out of the building through the window, and in some adrenaline-fueled panic, you sprinted nearly a full mile and dove into Zoness' ocean. I wouldn't have found you if it weren't for the terrifying trail of blood but we got out of it a little richer and a little more cohesive."

"Next mission will be in the sky, right?"

"Probably. No promises, though, and you wouldn't go on a ground mission until you recovered anyways." He got the shower on and the water pressure was like having someone spit on me. I liked a firm jet of water but this would have to do, and he nodded. "Looks like you were right, though. Not a fun speed, but it'll do to get you clean. Do you need help or can I leave you with some shampoo and get to it?"

I gave a little shrug, "If I have issues, I'll tell you," I said. He nodded and left me a bottle before he stepped to the opposite side of the line and got in the shower opposite of me. I peered back as he stripped. He had hung the towels outside of our doors as well, and I just admired him there for a moment before I started cleaning up.

–

 _Author's Note: Something about being back in classes is emotionally draining, but hey, I got some writing done. This was originally a lot longer but I'm splitting this chunk into two chapters so it's a little less aggressively long. That part just needs to be edited and cleaned up and I should hopefully get an opportunity to do that this weekend. Hope you all enjoyed._


	8. Moving Forward, Never Forget

_I apologize for the lack of chapters since February, but the semester was busy as hell for me and, once I got out, I started working full time so between the two, I've been fairly busy. My health is overall a lot better than it was this past year, but I'm looking at a vacation coming up that'll make it easier for me to catch up and pour into this project all over again. I just wanted to make myself known again with my day or two off that way I can get a project I hold close to me done. I hope you all enjoy, but I'll also apologize at the lack of real action in this one since it's a transition chapter._

As I turned the water off, I turned slightly to just admire the other male, the water that ran down his back and I felt a soft smile curve my lips. He was beautiful, despite the scars and his eye and anything else that may be physical flaws for him. I turned and walked over, wrapping my arms easily around his torso as the water coming from his spout began to catch me as well. I planted a kiss against the line of his jaw and I felt him smile at it before I bumped my nose easily to his cheek. "I need to redo the gauze on my leg," I said, and he gave a slight nod.

"It doesn't do too well getting wet, not awful, but you'd be better off changing it. Do you remember the cabinet that I got it from?" he asked, and I gave a slight nod.

"I was hoping you could redo it for me, my knee is still sorta messed up and you did it so well," I said, stroking a bit at his ego even though, really, it was just a wrap, it was fine for me to do it.

"I'm sure you can get it fine, Fox, and I feel gross after the last few days, still, I think you'd rather I got properly showered," and I gave a soft sigh, before giving another easy kiss, this time catching his lips before I pulled away and started back into the med bay.

The med bay, by all accounts, wasn't too impressive, but I used to watch all these old videos and the doctor's office always looked the same. I saw the few spots of blood that were left behind by the needle on the paper on the bed and I stepped forward and grabbed it, pulling it away before I placed it into the red bin at the wall. Years passed and all that really had seemed to change from then was the medicine. Some procedures still hurt, like that injection, but the pain was different and the risk had been all but eliminated. The only real chance you had at dying was outward intervention, someone killing you by crime or by war.

I pulled the paper back down, concealing the bed in the sterile sheet before I patted it down. It left my fingers feeling powdery and I rubbed them together a moment before brushing them over my sides. It felt strange walking around like this, not wearing anything, I'd have to figure out something about getting clothes after I had the gauze on.

The cabinet with the gauze was easy to access, and I began to redo the wrap on my knee and there was some tape in the same cabinet that I used to seal it. I dug through some of the other cabinets but the closest thing I could find to clothes was some papery hospital gowns and I left them behind. "Are you hiding clothes somewhere for me or am I going streaking back to the room?" I shouted as I turned a bit towards the bathroom.

I could hear the water shut off, "What was that?"

"Is there clothes for me or do I run for it?" I scratched a bit at the spot I'd brushed my hand after pulling the paper out. I needed to get something on, but as far as I could tell, I not only woke up without my clothes, but none of them had been left in this room for me.

"Run for it." There was the answer that I was expecting, not the one that I wanted, but yeah, that wasn't surprising.

I huffed for a second, "Hurry the hell up, I'm racing you once you're dry."

"I have clothes though," he called back. I dug a bit more and found them folded in one of the lower cabinets on top of a plastic bin.

"Yeah, that's no fun. What size are you?" The water was back on, he couldn't hear me. I reached down, I didn't need to take all of his clothes to get back up, he at least had underwear and pants both. The underwear were kinda skimpy, maybe skimpy for me? Because they were skimpy, they were small, but even as I slid them on, they were still baggy on me. I frowned, sliding a thumb into the waistband and trying to snap it but it wasn't even snug enough to do that. I slid back over and grabbed a gown from the cabinet before I tied it behind me and started out of the room. It was disorienting not knowing exactly where I was though.

"Pilot: Fox McCloud," and a nearby screen lit up.

"Acknowledged, what do you need, McCloud?"

"I need to return to. . . " I paused for a second, I needed clothes from my room, I knew how to get back to Wolf's from mine, "My room. How do I get there?"

"There's an elevator down the hall to your left. Take that elevator back to your floor. If you need further assistance, I'll be able to aid you there."

"Thank you."

"Acknowledged," and the screen shut off. Only about 40 steps down the rounded hall brought me to an elevator and I slid into the back of the elevator. The door closed as I thumbed over the button to get back to my floor. I felt the slight jerk from the elevator starting.

The elevator slowed to a stop, and I thumbed over the shut off button before the door had a chance to open. The ding went off but the door stayed shut and I slowly slid down the back wall of the elevator.

"My dad is dead."

Those few words had been a strong realization I had. I believed it, I knew it, I could remember Wolf there, but Peppy told me his comms went offline, the internal systems had been breached which means he had to die.

"He lost his life on Venom and I took the mantle. They retrieved his ship to try and make sure that I'd have something to remember him by. They tried to lock him in a case, though."

I let out a soft exhale but I couldn't really bring myself to leave the elevator. Wolf is crazy too, right? He has those moments where it seems like he could take my life, but he loves me too, for whatever that's worth. I hallucinated this guy as my dad at least twice now, two times that I saw the father I lost in the body of a man I've made love with now. I shivered for a second, I hated myself for a second, but the guilt and anger was misplaced.

"Somewhere out there, she must be a basketcase too," and I turned the elevator back on before stepping out. It was easy to find my room, but I didn't have the key. "Please open my door, Wolf has my key," and I heard the latch unlock before I opened the door. The AI was pretty damn good, and then I was alone. I didn't have my personal comm, or really, any of my things, none of them were in there and Wolf expected me to go back to his room. I didn't expect to really have any clothes waiting there, but my bags were there and I was able to pull on a black t-shirt and a pair of flight pants.

There was a comm station, a rooted one on the desk in the corner of the living room. I stepped over and I knew the number by heart. The screen lit up as I sat down and I pressed it in, the little camera to the side scanning over my face and then, even though it took a few seconds, there was an answer.

"Fox?" she asked, immediately as she saw my face, and then her video was engaged too.

"Hey, Fara," I could see the image that I was showing her, and I looked a mess. I was clean, but my eye was visibly foggy from the lens, I could see the marks resting against my flesh, "How are you?"

"How are you, Fox? All the things you could say and you start the conversation with how are you?" I could feel the memory of Gary's death at the back of my mind, slipping back in and tearing at me.

"I'm sorry."

"Better."

I paused, she crossed her arms over her chest. She looked so soft, even through the hard demeanor, her fur caught by a breeze and she was beautiful through it all. "I'm sorry isn't enough, but I'm sorry,"

"You're with Star Wolf right now, Fox?"

"Yeah."

"Talking to you is a crime and I don't really want to do this right now. I saw the news, I had General Pepper personally visit me to give his condolences." I flinched, because that seemed to be what I'm best at, faltering in the face of adversity.

"Please don't hang up," I said, and my voice was soft, "I need to talk to you, I need to clear the air."

"I'm not even upset about my dad's death. Something about being in the military has changed me, I've been here so long that death doesn't hit me like it should."

"I'm not talking about your dad, but that makes me feel a little bit better."

"Then the interview?"

"Yeah."

"I am pregnant, Fox," she said, and that was really all the confirmation I could expect. She was intelligent, she knew what I was saying without actually having me say it. I didn't have to elaborate, I didn't have to push to get the answers I wanted, she just knew, she knew me.

"Ours?"

"Ours."

I paused, I didn't know what to say all over again. My hand came to rest over the tip of my muzzle, holding back the shuddering breath that came. I felt like I was going to cry, but I knew I could hold it back for long enough to make it through the call.

"His death didn't break me, not like. . ." she cut herself off, but I could see the look of sympathy that washed over her, "You know. . . But, I have to ask, Fox: Why?"

"He was leading one of the factions trying to reform Zoness and the other faction took a hit out on him."

"You can refuse a hit, Fox, why did you do it?"

"I didn't learn who it was until we were already on Zoness, and. . ."

"It was your first mission, right?"

I nodded, she dragged her fingers over her muzzle. She looked frustrated, but not mad, because even though I wasn't there, I wouldn't want her to be mad. I didn't really have to say anything there, nothing further to explain why because she knew I just wanted to prove myself.

I could tell she was starting to wear out from the conversation, and if she was really okay, I could see through the facade she was putting out and into the wear and tear that was hidden beneath. Her eyes showed the little hints of sadness, but she probably wasn't lying when she said her dad dying didn't break her, but rather, the fact that it didn't was tearing her apart. "I love you, Fara."

"I know," and it stung, but I didn't expect it back and my heart was leaving her for Wolf anyways, so that pain would start to heal. "When it's time, I'll contact you. You can be here, you can help name him, you should know him. Even though. . ." she paused again, "Too many kids grew up without either of their parents, and it's hard enough to only have one. That war left behind a lot of angry orphans, and he or she will have two living parents, there's no reason that we should deprive them of either of their parents.

I wanted her to want me to be there, not to feel like they deserved for me to be there. "We can't fight then," I said, softly.

"We won't."

I gave a small nod, and it seemed like this was an okay end to the conversation, "Goodbye, Fara," and she echoed her own goodbye. The pale light of the comm dissipated and I rubbed my hands over my eyes for a moment. It was frustrating, because I knew that she loved me and that in the end, if I really wanted her to, she would forgive me with little to no question. I didn't want that, though, I wanted her to be happy without sacrificing some part of her conscience which she would have to, now.

Nearly an hour had passed, as well, in the awkward moments of silence and I'm sure Wolf was wondering were I was. I slipped out of my chair and started out the door. I knew the way to his room and it didn't take long before I was at his door, and even without knocking or a key, just me walking up to it made the latch undo and I pushed the door open. "Wolf?"

"I'm in the bedroom, Fox," he said, " Is something wrong?"

I shrugged, because part of me was wondering if there was something wrong or if I was just curious, "I talked to Fara."

I heard some shifting in the other room as I started to walk in, he was standing, "How did that go?" he asked, his voice soft as he walked to me. Even though the room was private, when he wrapped his arms around me. One parted from my back and I peered at him for a moment, but he was just closing the door behind me before he scooped me up into his arms and laid me down onto the bed. He laid down next to me, and he was dressed again, a black t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

He let his arm rest under my head his other over my chest and then, once we were a little more comfortable, I was ready to start to talk again, "It went okay. She isn't angry at me like I thought she'd be, so I might actually be able to maintain some sort of friendship with her. She is pregnant though, the child's mine."

He didn't seem angry, maybe a little concerned if anything. "That's good, though, complicated, gonna be a bit of a hellish experience considering your current lot of life. You are gonna stay though, right?"

I gave a small nod and the concern faded a bit. He wanted me to stay, which was definitely ideal but I was just looking for a little bit of normal in my life right now. It wouldn't help me any to just leave right now and throw my life into question and confusion all over again. "Have you seen any new articles on me since I've been out.

"Lots."

"What sort of things do they say?"

"You're public enemy number one right now. Your bounty is actually kinda ridiculous but you're safe here," he said, and his voice was soft, "They're not going to get a hold of you."

I rubbed my fingers over my snout for a moment. I was frustrated, sure, I didn't want to have to avoid Corneria for the rest of my life, but Wolf had found his way there despite his bounty, there was a way to get there without going straight to jail for your crimes, and I was sure I could do that too in time, that he could help me do that. I'd have to be careful, I could find a way I'm sure. "When are we going to get our next mission?"

"Actually, we have several. We can go look them over, see if you want to take on one of them. Whatever we don't take is gonna be relegated to the other teams here, but I figured I'd hold onto the ones that weren't super time sensitive to try and get a hold of something to get you out of here." He smiled, he did think of me for that, but he also hadn't left my side I appreciated him, but he definitely had grown closer to me just sitting there or laying there and making sure I survived. That was the theme, though, Wolf had gotten the chance to grow closer and closer to me without me really ever having the chance. I either saw my dad or, like in this case, I was just trying to survive.

"Thank you, by the way," I said, both for him holding the missions and just for him caring about me. His arm curled under me and tipped my head towards his, giving me a soft kiss. It was soft, it was easy, there was no lust or intent behind it, just the intimacy it brought and I let my hand rest against his chest before I eventually gave a gentle push and broke it. I smiled, he smiled, and I slipped from his embrace before standing and stretching, "We should go look at those missions, then," I said.

He gave an easy nod, "We'll go to the command bridge. We can actually watch a movie this time, too, because we're not gonna be able to immediately dispatch. You'll also get the opportunity to recover a little bit before we head out."

It sounded like bullshit, but I gave a slight shrug, "Let's do it, then," I said, and he grinned a little bit wider. We started out of the room together, hand in hand, and it felt nice and easy. I didn't really feel the need to push him away and tell him to slow down. I wanted to enjoy this advancement, to fall in love again. It moved so slow when I was with Fara, it took months and months for us to even break the barrier and start to grow close, to date, but it felt right to let something just go and be whatever it was going to be without planning it based off what others would think was right.

We reached the elevator and then were back up in that room, where we'd fought, and it didn't even seem to be a bad memory, but there we were and he let out, "Flight Commander: Wolf O'Donnell." The projections reappeared, just as they did the first time, before Wolf added, "Mission reports."

The window in front of us displayed a list of missions by their titles, request makers, and location. No mission that involved travel to Corneria or Fichina was present, likely avoiding the military bases that were present there. Until I had become a little more grounded in Star Wolf, I'd be pretty hard pursued. Until I was marked as a member of a mercenary band, I'd probably be arrested immediately. There were 5 or 6 missions there:

 _Hit: Gabriel Trist_

 _Escort: Venomian Munitions_

 _Capture: Zonessian Trade Ship_

 _Capture: Sector Z Flagship_

 _Rescue: Cornerian Squadron_

 _Repair: Aquas Environmental Systems_

I paused at the Rescue mission. A novice military squad had been captured in Venomian space, there were no details of the squad, but I knew quite a bit of students that had just graduated from the Academy that would fit that bill, including Jinx's squadron. Besides, I felt the need to do something that wasn't quite so shitty after that last mission. Assassination is a burden, I wouldn't forget killing him. It wasn't as personal when you were behind the glass in the cockpit. When you shot someone down, they were shooting back, you were killing people in the name of war, but we killed someone that didn't shoot back for a potentially corrupt man.

"Do any of them interest you, Fox?" he peered over at me but I feel like he already knew which one I'd be most drawn to before showing me the list.

"The rescue mission."

"I thought so." He nodded easily, to himself more than anything.

"It could be Jinx, even if it isn't, I feel like I need to repent after that last mission, at least a little bit." It was something he probably didn't want to hear out of someone, but even though it wasn't something he'd want to hear it was something that I was feeling that was pulling a bit at my heart.

"It's a rescue mission, it's the only one on the list that doesn't really have a time delay which I was hoping we'd have," he said, smiling a bit to himself, but he was still a little bit frustrated that we wouldn't have real time together before we left. "We just got it in earlier and it's time sensitive, since captures can result in executions if not answered quickly enough. You really need time to recover, but we shouldn't stay if we're taking this mission."

I gave a small nod at that, "It's not really the flight mission I was looking for, either, it's a little bit of both most likely. Depends on how and where they're being held. We can definitely help here though."

He gave a nod of his own, and he wrapped his arms around me for a moment. I wanted time with him, I wanted to relax, but something was dragging at the back of my mind. Even if it wasn't her, it was someone that needed my help, that had come to us for help. "It's high profile, too, the Cornerian army wouldn't contract Star Wolf unless they didn't have the resources to handle I themselves. It's gonna be tough, and this is one of those missions that we could actually end up in serious danger. There are other teams here that are better equipped, but that's not accounting for you. You have some skills that we didn't previously have on our team."

I smiled, he was complimenting me even though I was a rookie by all accounts. He gave a slight shake of his head before he added, "A good bit of it is due to the training you received from the military, but you definitely have learned some things on your own that are unique to you even beyond the academy. Honestly, I think some of the things you saw while you were teaching may be a part of it, too, you learned from the students you taught."

"Like Jinx. She was incredible and she showed me a hell of a lot, even if that wasn't her intention. She was a gifted, innovative pilot. I was too, when I first started, I think seeing her helped me break some of the monotony that the strict training regiment brought. It helped me be inventive all over again." He gave a nod and he pressed against the display. It brought up a full report, and I was right, it was Jinx's team that had been captured.

I wasn't all that surprised. Her team was gifted, but considering who they'd been captured by, they were put onto a mission that was too intense for them, or maybe a mission that they weren't quite aware was as big as it turned out to be. She should've been able to manage, but it wasn't out of the question for a new squad to go too far into a mission they weren't properly prepared for.

"When do we leave?"

"Whenever you're ready."

I sighed for a moment and turned away from the window. My eyes closed, I felt the touch of Wolf's hands on my hips, "It's her," I said. He let out a sigh of his own, but we'd have to go if for no other reason than we had to get her out. "I'm not leaving her behind."

"You don't have to. We'll go right away."

"Thank you."

We started our way out of the room, "Flight Commander: End," and everything went dark. I grabbed at Wolf's hand again as we hit the elevator and we were going down. He tapped his wrist, "Inform Leon that we're leaving on our mission right away and to head to the docking bays. . . Fox, I'm going to get the materials that we need for our mission. I'll see you there," and I got off the elevator and stood there in the relative silence that being there brought.

I started my way towards the docking bays and I saw my Arwing there, and I realized I don't even know how it managed to make its way back. I was out for the count, so they most likely had to take a trip back to get it, something, the Wolfens and Arwings aren't really equipped for autopilot due to the fact that they're designed with a lot of cutbacks to optimize battle systems.

When I turned, Leon was there, "How'd my ship get back?"

"We left my Wolfen behind until I could get back there. Wolf needed the optimization for his vision to be able to get back, so I flew it back," he smirked easily, "It's kinda a clunky piece of crap, but I can see why you like it." That was more words than I'd ever heard from Leon, but I smiled a moment.

"And I guess I owe a thank you to you too."

"Thanks are for the dead. We're gonna stay alive a little while longer."

–

 _Well then, I got a message inquiring about the story and I'd been in the process of rereading it and refamiliarizing myself with it. I'd gotten 3 chapters finished but they were gonna end up incredibly disjointed from what I'd continue with, since I wasn't interested in continuing that line of plot to the extent that I'd taken it. Instead, I'm going to jump a bit and work a bit more with Jinx in the coming chapters, because she's going to be a recurring character (if you didn't figure that out). I'm focusing on the Star Wolf tidbits for now but I don't want to lose Fox's identity while he's in Star Wolf and that means holding onto characters that had impact prior to his joining Star Wolf, including Fara and Jinx and to whatever extent, his former team._

 _I am a little bit rusty from the long semester but I'm still able to put work out and make some progress on this story. I'll also be going on vacation starting this coming Saturday (a week from now) and during that time I won't have work or anything else. I'll be spending a few hours every day working on this and I'm hoping to get up towards Chapter 15, which was my original intended length, but considering the ambitions I have for the series as well, expect it to be something much longer and much more intricate because I'm hoping to tackle some of the content from the other games (namely the Aparoid Invasion due to the large tie-ins with Star Wolf). I am back though, so I hope you're all ready for more content. Thank you~_


	9. Unnecessary Risks Learning to Kill

_I actually didn't expect to finish another chapter as quickly as I did, but hey, I'm not gonna be upset over the fact that I managed to get one done fairly quickly. Full-steam ahead on this, though. I'm excited that I'm able to get some progress in on it. This chapter is continuing the plotline revealed in the last chapter. Hopefully, with this plotline, things will become a little more fluid since this is bringing in Jinx again as a key player in the story and her actions and experiences will choose a bit of a direction for Fox. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'll hopefully get one more together before I go on vacation._

Soon enough, Wolf joined us in the docking bay and Leon seemed to return to the silent persona he had forged, standing there and grinning with his arms crossed over his chest. I looked at Wolf a second, and he looked a little flustered, but he had the materials that we'd need for this mission, weapons and all sorts of gadgets just like last time. He kissed me and placed a knife and a gun in my hand as well as a small bag. "Knife left ankle, gun right ankle, distribute the contents of the bag however you see fit. You might also be able to conceal the bag at your hip, since it'll flatten out nicely."

I dropped the knife as I tried to fumble with everything he gave me, huffing as I felt the blade brush the tip of my finger and draw blood. I winced, placing the finger in my mouth to suck at the wound as the bitter taste of my own life kissed my tongue. I leaned down and slid the gun into my sock, making sure the safety was on before I dug through the bag to find the anklet for the knife. Without much trouble, I found it and slid it on before the knife was nice and in position for a fight.

I turned back towards Wolf before I wrapped the bag around my back, and when arriving to my Arwing, the soft murmur of my voice opening the cockpit, I pulled out a flight jacket and slid into it, the fabric doing plenty to conceal the bag. As I turned back towards Wolf, I saw him giving Leon all of his gear as he held onto his own. He just wanted me outfitted first, but unlike last time, there was no briefing on what everything did or any disclaimers about what would go wrong if I misused the materials. I would just assume that overusing or misusing something would cause irreversible damage, that was a safe bet.

I slid into the cockpit of my Arwing and brought the glass down to seal myself into the cockpit. I turned a little bit towards the other two. Soon, they were slipping into their Wolfens and the comm channels came online. It didn't change much, we were still immersed in silence, and I could feel the tension that was to come because of the mission that we were about to undergo. We exited Sargasso and entered the abyss of space and it was comforting to have that sense of freedom return even though we knew where we'd be going.

As I peered through the glass of my cockpit, I couldn't help but lift my hand to my eye, to just try and grasp how much my eye had degraded. Without the good eye, I found myself staring through the foggy lens and I let out a soft sigh. Wolf knew what this was like, to a greater extreme, but it'd be an awkward conversation to have considering the damage was my fault. It'd heal, but never fully and I'd have to get used to not having a fully functioning eye.

I turned a bit and caught sight of Wolf's ship, moving easily through the abyss with the backlight of stars, and it was no different as I turned towards Leon. It was a pretty view, the gentle heat of Solar as we moved towards Venom. The last time that Wolf had been on Venom, we had fought, as far as he had told me, he fell out of good faith with Andross and was more or less discharged after that last fight. Considering my survival being Wolf's intervention, I can't imagine they would be welcome back anyways.

"Do you have any idea about the military environment of Venom since the wars? It's been more closely observed, but I never inquired enough when I was working at the Academy to actually know what was going on."

"No, they're still contentious with Corneria but the war cut their balls off, so the only fighting they do is through captures and hostage situations. Corneria doesn't have the money to put into war again yet over hostages, so it turns into a nuisance more than anything," Lean chimed, a soft hum. I wasn't expecting to really hear his voice as often as I was starting to. He was breaking out of that terrifying shell of his.

"We used to keep regular tabs on them but we couldn't get any meaningful information without sending a professional and we didn't have the money to afford it. Whatever operations they had were pretty well classified, but we're right up there with you on the political enemies for that planet. Seeing a Wolfen or an Arwing is gonna put them on red alert, so we're going to be watched pretty closely. We're going to try and play this out diplomatically at first, but we don't have the firepower to fight their military if it falls through." I let out a soft exhale, I enjoyed the sound of his voice but I didn't really care for the words he was saying right about now.

"I don't really want to play the diplomat, though," I said, running my hand through my hair a second. I could see the little dot that was Venom on the horizon that we were approaching. We didn't have too much time to really get into the nitty gritty about it, so I just sighed a moment.

"Corneria does have political control over Venom, but only on the surface," Leon said, "Corneria has a military base on planet to suppress the Venomian backlash while they impose laws and regulations on the planet. The galaxy as a whole was pissed at them, so when the vote on punishments goes to the galaxy as a whole, a single aggressor will lose every vote against them. Expect some pretty harsh hostility to you in particular, Fox, being the posterchild for the Cornerian military and all that. If they follow the news though, you may be their hero."

"They don't see anyone in Star Wolf as their hero, Leon, it'd be a longshot for them to give any benefits to Fox with him associated to us."

"They don't know who pays him yet," and I saw Leon smiring on the comm display. He wasn't wrong, "If you want to play diplomacy, Fox can go alone."

I could practically hear Wolf's hackles rise, as I just sat there and listened to the two of them talk about me, "No! I'm not letting him go alone, that's too dangerous."

"My legacy is going alone, Wolf. If it gives us an edge, I'll do it," and my voice was soft. I doubted it, just a little bit, but I didn't let it break into those words so much as I had the little bit of self-control to not get Wolf even more freaked out. "If it means saving Jinx's team, then I'll go alone."

Wolf grumbled, and Leon laughed a moment as he got some sick thrill from the idea that I was disobeying the big bad wolf, but it was all in good fun. I would come to regret it, though, as we approached Venom the silence was overwhelming. Wolf looked bitter, upset, concerned, all sorts of emotions that I could easily read off of his face and Leon seemed content to just bask in the silence and the agreement. We arrived, we landed, and I left alone towards the capitol building. I didn't even know how I was supposed to approach it.

I entered the building, I peered around and I looked for anyone that had a pulse, but there was only a lone ram that sat at a desk on the other end of the room. She looked tired, probably had no idea what I'd be talking about, but I stepped forwards towards her. Wolf had insisted I take my blaster and it was attached to my ankle, hidden beneath the flight pants and there was a knife attached to the other ankle, some sort of sick joke from Leon, but knives were a valid weapon as well. "Hi, I don't think you'll know what I'm talking about, but I'm here to try and locate a Cornerian squad that was captured in Venomian airspace. The leader of the squad is named Stephanie Perot."

She looked up, she seemed to be bored of me even though I'd only said a few words, but those eyes had a knowledge beneath them. She knew what I was talking about, and she gave a slight nod, "Just one moment, someone will be right with you to discuss this with you." I gave a slight nod, and she continued, "You're Fox McCloud, right?" she asked, and I found myself nodding all over again, "Should you be here right now? Cornerian military is crawling all over the place," she whispered. Leon was right, they saw me as an enemy to Corneria.

"I'll be fine," I said, bu it seemed as if I spoke too soon, because I felt cold steel through the back of my shirt as I started to turn.

"They're watching the cameras, McCloud, just keep looking forward and we'll get you to a floor they're not watching. Walk to the elevator," the voice was low, cool, and sadistic. It reminded me of Leon, and having someone's tone remind me of Leon put me on red alert. "It's always a pleasure, Linda," he said, and we were moving towards the elevator. His other hand came to rest on my shoulder and I felt the brush of scales against my cheek as his head hovered over the other. The elevator door opened and we were within. The gun didn't move from my back, but my personal space grew a little bit as he relaxed away from me and pressed the button for the floor.

"Do I get to know your name?" I asked, as I continued to stare forward at the door. I couldn't even let my eyes wander, which was hard for me. I didn't like to focus on one thing, but the fear of getting shot gave me the incentive to keep on staring forward.

"Damian," he said, and he left it at that, "If there's anything else you'd like to know, you're going to have to wait until I get you to the destination." I swallowed but it caught in my throat, I coughed as I felt like I was choking for a second, but that was only the anxiety setting in. The elevator came to a stop and I was shoved out into the open air as he pocketed his gun. Three more waited there, and as I turned, I realized they were all four chameleons like Leon. Their hues were different, their structure just a little different as well, but there was no mistaking it. They may even know him, but Leon had gotten discharged for a fascination with knives.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, and I turned to face him.

"I'm looking for Stephanie Perot," and I left it at that. If I hinted at my closeness with her, that may get me in trouble. The more ambiguous I was, the better off I would be in the end.

"We have her but why should we let you see her?" As I turned, I realized I was boxed in. They were trying to intimidate me, but something in me didn't care for intimidation, and I glared at one of them. I knew why they had her, why they'd bothered with the capture.

"I'd like to help you in any way. Interrogation, execution, I know what limits they're trained with, I know what to do," I said, and it felt harsh, but I needed to put that side forward.

"You've got some bark, but do you have any bite?" he asked, and I slammed my head forward right into his. Everything started ringing immediately, and I pulled back, ducking as I felt a fist go over the top of my head. My elbow hit the attacker's stomach but I felt the remaining two grabbing my arms and restraining me.

I smiled, "How's that for bite," and he grinned, despite the blood coming from his nose before he gave a firm punch to my gut. I definitely had a black eye, and the air had rushed out of my lungs, but I was no worse for wear in the end.

"Not bad," he said, "Let him go, we'll show you to them."

"One condition, I want to go in alone. You can observe, but I don't want anyone else in there with me." He smirked, but for the wrong reasons. He assumed I was bloodthirsty and a bit shy about it, but I was just looking for any sort of opening to get her out. I was in over my head and I could tell already.

My ears started ringing a moment as I stepped back from them. Wolf was monitoring what I was saying, what I was doing, he'd imposed a bunch of backups to try and ensure that it'd go well, but what could he really do here? The ringing was him trying to get me to check my comm, but checking it would just make it a little bit worse in the long run, so I just kept my head down and followed them. The hallway was immaculate, but I could see rooms where I was sure people had been detained and been killed in the past, single tables with chairs to either side as they were drained dry of information then deposed. Stephanie was alive, still, I could do something if I just kept with it.

I was going to get shot at, no doubt, and this hallway was so long and we were getting further and further away from the elevator. The chance of me making an escape there had begun to disappear, but I still had some hope to hold out for for the time being. I just managed to put it into a situation where there was a window of opportunity for me to do this right, to get them out, but it was a pretty narrow opening to get through. There was so little room for error and I hated that, but that was the nature of this situation, because I wouldn't be able to handle it diplomatically when they were out for blood.

Soon enough, we reached a door and I was handed a gun and pushed in. The only light in the room was a single over hanging light, and the rest of the room was trapped in a cool darkness. It was horrifically silent, but too warm to be empty and with enough scanning, I found her, I found them, all sitting against a wall and chained up and how the hell am I supposed to get them out of this place alive? Why would I put myself into the situation where it was make or break, and break meant that I had to stare them down the barrel of a gun and send them off to the great, white beyond.

"Fox?" and I heard her voice. It was definitely her, Jinx. Before she had a chance to say anything else to me, I reached into my jacket and dug through. I found a small orb, I remember it from the first mission. It was a way to induce an artificial loop in security cameras. I pressed the button in and felt a sudden and harsh shock rush through my body, I let out a cry, but I heard the slight discharge from above me as well.

"Yeah," I said, and it was soft. I didn't even know who would be on her squad. Ferris was the only member of her squad that had graduated with her, so he would be here, but they would also place someone that was more of a veteran in the military. I would have a few minutes before they'd notice the artificial loop, but that wasn't without the possibility of them checking just to see why I hadn't killed them yet, "How are you holding up?"

"Why are you here, Fox?" she asked, and she looked concerned. Ferris was indeed there, which was surprising, but the veteran member was surprisingly a familiar face as I saw a bulldog against the wall as well. Bill. He would make sense as a choice, though, another trusted elite in the Cornerian military and his dogfight skills were topnotch as far as the military goes. He would be a favorite for leading specialized units like the one that I assumed that they were a part of.

"I'm trying to get you out of here," I said, but she saw the gun, Bill and Ferris surely did too, and I held it for a second. None of the gadgets that I had there would really help us get out of the room undetected, but I fumbled through the bag. I had pretty much nothing that would help us other than relying on arming them and trying to get out by force, but we wouldn't get out of here without sacrifices. "God damn it," I said, and I held my hand over my maw for a second and just forced myself to think.

"How do you plan on doing that, Fox?" and it was Bill, and I could hear the doubt in his voice. Fighting meant death, it'd be 4 to 4 and the Academy's combat training wasn't exactly what you need to be ready for a fire fight. I turned for a second, a minute had passed at this point and I felt a tear welling up in my eye because I knew that I'd already made a deadly mistake by coming into this room, because no matter what I tried to put together, there was nothing that seemed even remotely plausible.

"I'm thinking," I said, and that admission just set the doubt even deeper there for myself and for all of the others there. I walked towards them, putting the gun into my bag and exchanging it for another device. I could undo their bonds, it worked even to undo my own bonds, and one by one they were out of their shackles, but Ferris was unconscious.

"They've been drugging us," Jinx said, "Interrogating us and then putting us out as much as they can. Bill showed me how to hide the pills, us, but Ferris didn't get it or didn't want to, he's been out for a while now," she said, and she stood there a second. "If he comes with us while like this, we're going to die, aren't we?" She was teary-eyed, I didn't need to look at her to know that.

I placed a gun into her hand, and one into Bill's. "Do you have any idea what they've been drugging you all with?" Bill shook his head, Jinx too, and I gave a soft nod. I reached into my bag for a second, "You're all getting out of her, even if it means I put myself at risk," I said. I had my gun an the gun they gave me, but the only other weapon that I had was the knife at my ankle. Leon would be proud, but I placed myself at the door, we were running out of time before they'd check on us. They wouldn't gun me down if they thought the others were dead.

"Jinx, stand at the center of the room and take 3 shots at the back wall. Angle them towards where each of you were resting. Get Ferris and bring him to the door first, but we have less than a minute before we have to go or they're going to come in. Maybe less, we have to go." Ferris was rested against the wall and Jinx took the three shots. I gestured to the walls and the two of them were there after a few moments, huddled against the wall, "We can do it," I said.

After a few more moments, I opened the door and I stepped out. Only two of them were waiting, which gave me an advantage in the end. I don't know how far the others would be, but I stepped out. "You did the deed, then? I heard the girl in there was one of your students, you must've hated her a lot," he said, and he started to move past me, "I want to see where you shot her," he said, and it took all of my willpower to not show a reaction. They'd take care of him, and I counted down from three in my head. He stepped into the room, and I heard a "Wait. . . " and then my knife was buried in the stomach of the other guard.

I heard another shot from behind me, and there was soft, wet gasp from the male in front of me. He wasn't expecting it, his hands fumbled at my chest and they dragged, they clutched at the fabric before he grabbed at his gun. He didn't have the strength to hold it, and it fell and misfired, catching the side of my calf as I let out a hissing gasp. My hand rested over his mouth, any scream that was going to come, any shout for help never did and I drew the knife from him as he collapsed into a heap. It felt okay, like that was something that was within my ability. I could kill someone if I needed to.

There was sound from the end of the hall, the end that we came from. We couldn't go the other way, God knows how many people would be in that direction and God knows if we could even get out if we go that way. Bill's hand was at my shoulder, his other arm occupied with carrying Ferris for the time being, "That's the way out, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I don't know how we're supposed to be getting out of here right now," but the next person to appear, the next antagonist was quickly taken down my Jinx. I dipped into one of the nearby opening, resting against a door. The little cubby offered some protection, and every door had that. The doors opened outward, they'd shield us if we needed it, but they opened that way because they were supposed to be easy to exit. If there was a door that opened inward, it meant that it was pointed towards an exit, but none of the doors in the immediate area were like that.

It wasn't long before I heard an alarm go off, and I turned a bit to try and see if there was anything we could do, anywhere we could go, but there was no sign of us being able to comfortably get out before I just sorta stared forward, "Move," I said, and I started to run down the hall, but I felt a blaster shot whiz past me before I was back into a cubby. They were in too, but Bill's hand had slid off of Ferris to clutch at his shoulder. That shot had hit him. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," and he let out another hiss of pain. He lowered Ferris to the floor, but from what I could tell, he wasn't handling it all that well. There was no sound from the other end, maybe because this was a prison unit there was no one located anywhere except the exit. We wouldn't get flanked, but we'd have to fight our way out. I tapped my comm a second before I lowered down towards it, peering at the image of Wolf that soon appeared, "It's not happening diplomatically," I said, and his eyes widened immediately.

"What the hell, Fox?" he asked, his voice a hushed whisper as if he knew that being loud would put me into a bit of danger, "What happened?"

"They were in a prison unit and I was getting a lot of aggression when I came in. I volunteered to execute them but that means now that they're not dead, that we have to fight out. Bill took a shot to the shoulder. Can you and Leon do anything?" When I asked, he just gave a little sigh.

"We can, but it depends on how daring you want to be. If you want to keep your Arwing, we're gonna need to come in on the ground, but we're gonna have a dog fight once we're in the air, too," he said, and I looked across the hall. Bill was bleeding quite a bit, and Jinx was taking potshots at them as she could do so safely. Eventually, a shot flew back and I heard a hiss from her. We were accurate, but so were they and as I looked towards her, I saw her hand was resting on her cheek. That sort of shot was inches away from being lethal.

"We need to get out safely, that means the ground. If you try to blow a hole in this building and extract us, you're gonna get shot down before we can even get out," I said, and I'm sure he'd agree in the long run. He nodded. The comm link closed, and we were stuck there for the time being. It wasn't long before I heard shouts and yelling from the end of the hall and soon enough, there was silence. I was too afraid to look down the hall, but I soon heard footsteps, slow and calm. I turned, and I caught sight of Leon, "Don't shoot!" I yelled as I turned. Jinx had her gun trained and ready, but this was our way out, our chance of getting out.

Leon was an assassin, I should've expected him to come because he could dispatch a large number of people. He was dripping in blood and riddled with bullet holes. Most of that blood wasn't even his, but his eyes were bloodshot. As I studied him for a second, standing, I realized that that wasn't natural. What did he do when no one was watching?

Bill stood, scooping Ferris up again, and Jinx stood. Her face had a slow drool of blood, but nothing that was going to be lethal in the long run. We took our steps towards the entrance, but Leon looked at me a moment, "We only have a few minutes before they dispatch their private military towards our location. It'll take a little bit before they're able to arrive, but I'd much rather be in my Wolfen when that happens than on the ground." His voice was calm, his tone level and he didn't even have any sound of pain laced in his voice. He was something else, but I nodded.

We began to ran to the end of the hall, dancing through the line of corpses before we were at the elevator. As we began to exit the building, I could hear the sound of the alarm outside. The ram that had been at the desk was absent, which was probably for the better. I felt like I couldn't run fast enough, my lungs heaving as we all tried to make some ground. I heard a periodic gunshot, and I wasn't sure if it was towards us or if a riot had started. I refused to look away from the path that we were on.

Soon, we were back to my Arwing and the Wolfens, "Jinx, take my ship, you and Ferris can fit in there. Bill, you go in with Leon. I'll go in with Wolf," I said, and there was no questioning it before we were sliding into our ships, and I was back into Wolf's lap. My body was weak from the stress, but I wouldn't be able to participate in the coming dog fight, I had entrusted that to Jinx over myself, especially after how she had performed in the dogfight against me and Fara and the other teams.

We began to part from the ground and I turned and planted a soft kiss on Wolf's jawline. It would only get tougher from here, but once we were out of Venom airspace, we'd have a little more of a chance of actually getting out of here alive. If anyone died though, they'd die because I fucked up and I don't know if I want that burden on my shoulders.

–

 _This chapter does bring in Bill (very small presence as of right now) and we're getting more and more out of Leon as well. While Fox and Wolf's relationship are a big part of the story, the characterization of Leon, Jinx, Bill, Fara and others are also important to me and I want them to have some impact beyond just being characters on the sidelines for this ride. I know that Fara's presence has some decent impact, alongside being pregnant and all that, but I don't plan on her being the only one that has a major impact on Fox's life._

 _I'm trying to avoid soap opera-like reveals where things happen completely out of the blue. Most everything that's happening, with a few exceptions, are foreshadowed in some way and there's some hint before the reveal. Any case where the foreshadowing is vague, I'm trying to still carry it through Fox's vantage point where he is naive and he may miss out on cues or read into things that aren't relevant. Feel free to leave feedback because I'd appreciate any feedback on how the dramatic side is playing out. I hope you all enjoyed though~_


	10. Mission Complete

_This chapter was a little tougher for me to get together just because I didn't like the way that the start of the chapter felt initially. I did get it together, though, and I have the next two chapters done as well and I'm editing them so that I can get them out over the next few days. I'm now on vacation, so expect more regular updates for the time being because I've got the time and means to get some content out. I'm gonna put together as many chapters as possible, and once they're edited, I'll be posting them most likely either every other day or every 3 days, based on how quickly I'm able to edit._

 _These next few chapters are going to be focusing on character development again. I don't like where Jinx's character is up to this point so I'm working on her, as well as the Star Wolf team as a whole. I hope you all enjoy~_

–

It wasn't long after we were off the ground that shots came past our flank. There was something wrong with the idea of giving away the control of a battle to anyone, even if it was to Leon, Wolf, and Jinx. I didn't like playing the part of the bystander, but I would have to. Wolf veered easily away from the shots, and I was starting to turn my attention towards his display. I hadn't really had the chance to be in his ship, but the display was shifted largely to the right, while the left side had a compressed projection of the sky in front of them. The flight controls were incredibly sensitive as well, allowing for small motions to create large turns. Wolf effortlessly manipulated those controls as he peeled behind the ships that had followed him and brought them down.

I watched each little movement, each pivot and each manipulation. He took down ships with ease as we approached the atmosphere. The atmosphere would be a turning point for us, giving us the ability to fight without inhibition. The retreat that we were taking at the moment left us at a disadvantage. Wolf was somehow not taking any shots, but I could see Leon and Jinx both taking a lot, but that may have just been Wolf pushing himself to keep both himself and me out of danger of any form.

His careful weaving took down a small handful of ships before they fell back to the surface of Venom in a trail of smoke and flame. It wasn't long before the ships leveled out, the G-Diffuser system switching off in an easy motion. Jinx most likely was piloting an Arwing on the basis purely that she was a specialized soldier for the military, but often, the ships that were piloted by the military were significantly less powerful than the ships commanded by mercenaries.

The ships that the military invested in had advanced weapons systems, capable of cutting down and through shields of mercenary ships, but in reality, those advanced systems were pretty much identical to the weapons that the mercenaries used. They were expensive and required the ships to be cost-effective elsewhere, and that was attained by cutting down on the cost in the shields. The same weapons that mercenaries used often only took one or two shots to cut down one of those ships. I watched it happen over and over, as Wolf pushed himself to his limits and took down ship after ship with relative ease.

"Is everyone okay?" he said, the comms going live for the three ships now that we weren't in Venom's airspace.

"I'm fine, we're fine," came from Jinx, "Took some fire, but the shields are still operational." She sounded a little battered, but she seemed at least a little bit better from her hostage situation.

The sound from Leon's ship was a sputter though that was trailed by a line of coughing. "Leon?" I asked. He had taken a lot of hits when we had been coming for us. His comm went off, but his ship still seemed to move with a bit of sense. Leon was in with Bill, worst case scenario Bill could actually help manage the ship's controls, if Leon weren't okay, but he had seemed fine, despite everything. The adrenaline could've worn off and left him high and dry. "Wolf, cover him as much as you can," I whispered.

He nodded, and his arm lowered from the controls a second to brush along my thigh. When it hit inner, I felt my entire body shiver. My body instinctively responded by pressing backwards away from the touch, and I felt myself meld into him, and he wasn't a bad seat. He even laughed a little bit at me, "Asshole."

His hand returned to the controls and the motions were clean, slicing through the Venomian squadron, but Leon's ship was definitely more visibly fucked up in action. He wasn't dodging fire, taking a good chunk of it and a trail of white smoke was coming from his ship, even though he'd gunned down countless people. Wolf had done such a good job at dodging fire, too, but he put himself between Leon's ship and the incoming fire, deflecting what he could with a barrel roll and eating some of the other fire.

The lights within the ship shifted from the cool blue to a red, our shields were sustaining damage and I just sat there, watching forward. I didn't dare glance back, I didn't want to see Wolf sweat, not like this anyways. The comm came back on, Bill, "He's out, I've got it." The ship regained some composure, but the Wolfen's controls were foreign to me, and they would be to Bill too. The pathing cleaned up a little bit, but he veered out of the way of some of the incoming fire, sustaining less damage than had been before.

"Out?" came from Jinx.

"Like a light." We had two people down, then. Ferris was still not responding either. We couldn't stay in the sky for much longer, especially with Leon in the condition he had been in. When I tried to turn, to look at Wolf, I felt a twinge in my muscles. Everything was so stiff, and then it felt like for just a moment.

"Wolf, my body," I said, but the words were muffled by my jaw.

"What's the matter?" he whispered, and I felt the twinge grow stronger. My jaw wouldn't open, my lungs started shuddering as each breath was a struggle to get. What the fuck was happening? I didn't sustain any damage, I didn't do anything that should do this to me . . . it hurt, it hurt so bad, the air was turning to fire in my lungs and then I felt a sudden surge through my body, a pulse of electricity. I'd felt them before, faint tremors in my body but this felt so big. They'd started when. . . when . . .

–

Air rushed into my lungs as I drew from an induced slumber. The panic displaced whatever air I'd been breathing and I sputtered on the excess, coughing a bit. A nearby bed had Leon, patched up and sleeping. His breathing seemed stable, but I wasn't even in a gown this time, so I didn't even really know the nature of my injury. . . The device had to have done it. Andross' tech seemed to do a really poor job at leaving a body in good condition. I hurt a fair bit, but that's probably because what it was advertised to do was really just gotten to through a giant electrical discharge. Of course the cameras went out, but it was like getting struck by lightning. The adrenaline kept me going, but when it started to go, I started to lose it.

When I stood, my body ached, but it was a better ache than the last time I had woken up in the med bay. Jinx and Ferris were nowhere to be found, or Bill. If they'd been here they'd gotten out of it before I did, and I started my way out of the med bay. I needed to breathe a little, and I found myself wandering through the hall. I didn't want to to go back to my room yet, but went to the main floor that I'd arrived at. I passed the common room, a handful of people drinking on the couch but no one I knew. When I passed the pool, I peered in and saw that Jinx was still here, she was alone doing laps in the pool.

Rather than go in to talk to her, I kept my path to the docking bay. My steps were careful, quiet. If someone saw me, they didn't make a remark, and eventually I was in the midst of the wide array of ships. There was only one with accents of blue, my Arwing, and I walked up to it. Small moments like this, when I could drag my fingers over the glossy paint that had kissed the metal were nice. I found a nick, where a shot had sliced over it after the shields have fallen it. Those scars of battle left me questioning when and how. I saw a few that I recognized, a patch of metal resting on the wing just beside my cockpit. In the dogfight with Wolf, he had put a hole in my wing, nearly took me down, but we won. I traced a circle around it.

The other distinct one was the glass. This glass didn't break, it just didn't, you were more likely to knock the canopy off of its hinges than actually break the glass itself, but the ship I had gotten back had somehow gotten marked by someone. If a knife would cut, I'd have guessed it, but someone had cut a faint V at the base of the canopy. I couldn't even see it when the display was up, but it was probably dad, leaving a mark to remember her after Andross had killed her. I traced it with my claw, the groove letting it sink easily into the cut as I traced through it.

I let my head lower and rest against the glass, my breath leaving a slight haze over the glass as the cool touch of it spread over my cheek, sending a shiver down my spine. I heard a footstep in the bay, and even though I felt safe here, there was no breaking habits and I had turned, my hand on my hip looking for a gun that I didn't have. "Someone told me they'd saw you walking towards the docking bay. I figured you'd have left or something, but no ship left." My gaze leveled for a second, my dragging down my side to try and cover up the fact that I had been looking to take a shot, it was Leon, in a gown and covered in bandages.

I bit my tongue. I wanted to ask why he wasn't resting, but Leon seemed to do his own thing more often than not. Whether or not he should wasn't even up to debate, because the answer was pretty much always shouldn't. "How are you feeling?" that question felt safer.

"Sore, headache. I'm fine," he said, a bemused smirk on his face. His hand was over one of his wounds, a shot he had taken to his shoulder, but he wasn't wincing in pain, just dragging his finger roughly over the spot. Masochism wasn't an attractive trait. "What about you? You went out without any real warning," he said, grinning even wider, "At least I had gunshot wounds to explain mine."

"Andross tech sucks," I said, "I miss having Slippy just because his tech actually worked without the giant fuck you every time you used it."

"The frog's a fucking mess," he said, "But Andross was shit too. We don't need a research engineer." I flinched, his tone was a little harsh, but I didn't really push into it. Leon was still a big mystery to me, and pissing him off when I'd done well enough for him to talk to me right now wasn't a good idea. He was closing the gap between us slowly, each step careful, meditated, but his motion was detected.

"Slippy's the only reason I got my ship out of there. If they actually were able to recover any footage from that night, they'd know Slippy got her flight ready before I left. He's not together, but his heart is in the right place," I said. I don't know how he was closing the gap so fast, but I could see his eyes now. They were his eyes, but . . . they still didn't look right. I hadn't realized it until he'd done what he'd done on Venom. "What's. . . what's going on with you, Leon?"

His next two steps were rapid, and I was pinned against my Arwing. My arms went to push him off of me, but his tail wrapped over my wrists and tugged down hard. My balance went, my knees buckled, and I was on my ass, my head hitting the lip of the Arwing on my way down. "Nothing's going on. I'm fine, I already told you that." His tone didn't change, he didn't even acknowledge that what he'd just done wasn't normal. His tail loosened from my wrists and flicked behind him. He didn't really need to say anything, the message was clear, don't talk about it.

"I'm not scared of you, Leon," I said, but I was on my ass and he didn't need to give me another hint to still have the leg up here. I went to stand, he stepped back and let me do it. He wasn't scared of me either and he stood there.

"You should go talk to that girl you took the mission for. She wanted to talk to you when you woke up." I gave a nod in response to that, and Leon just smiled a little bit. That smile seemed innocent, but Leon wasn't all that innocent himself so I just found myself staring at him for a moment trying to figure out what the hell was going on in his head. I didn't know enough to even guess.

I stepped around him, he didn't move as I left, and I started my way back towards the pool. She was most likely still there, still swimming and trying to work through what had happened. When I got there, she wasn't doing laps anymore, she was sitting on the edge and letting her feet drag through the water, and as I opened the door, she turned towards me. She was in a slim one-piece, the natural stripes of her fur much more visible with her fur slicked down as the water pooled around her. "Fox. . ."

I realized I didn't really know anything about who she was as a person, but I could list facts about her life. She could list facts about mine, too. "You wanted to talk to me? Here's a chance."

She sat there a moment, kicking her legs. She didn't know what to say, I could tell. "Why?"

"There's a few things that that could be asking," I said. I didn't look to her to catch her expression this time, my stare was just making her nervous anyways.

"Why did you leave the academy?" That question was stupid, though, she knew the answer to that.

"I didn't want to be there. I'm not meant to be a part of the military."

"How can you tell?" she asked, looking towards me. That's what this was about, she wasn't sure if she should be there either.

"You can't really tell. I spent the start of my career in my father's footsteps as a mercenary. He wanted to be the kind that wasn't just a hired gun, the kind that was there to help people. When I took the mantle, I loved the freedom. It's not something you can tell, though, military life is comfortable and you have a stable income, that's nice too," I said. I gave a soft shrug, "I just know that I liked mercenary life more."

"Okay," she said, giving a soft nod at that. She was tasting that, but she didn't seem so desperate for a change to drop everything there and now, but it was something to think about. "Why did you join Star Wolf, then? They're hired guns." I flinched. She wasn't wrong about that, I'd killed Fara's dad in the role of hired gun already.

"It was the only other high-profile mercenary group other than Star Fox, and since Star Fox dissolved, Star Wolf was the only real contact I had or choice I had to go back. You don't survive going alone."

"You could've asked me. I'd rather see you like that than not sure how to see you at all." I flinched again. She was pointed with her words, she didn't really have the need to hold back either. I'd done a lot for her, but in her mind, I'm sure I'd betrayed her trust somehow.

"I wasn't going to ask any of my students. That would've made it so much worse, I wanted my ship back and taking my ship back meant defacing a military monument more or less. Or stealing it. Something worth a massively ridiculous bounty on Corneria," I said, and I ran my fingers over the bridge of my nose a little, "It would've just dragged you all in with me. Especially since I was doing something like that, something that was gonna get me a stupid bounty, I was gonna be better off going somewhere that actually had the resources to keep me out of trouble with my bounty."

She ducked her head for a moment. "Yeah. . . " she paused for a second, "Corneria, before I was sent for my mission, was having daily reports on determining your whereabouts. They didn't know you were in Star Wolf yet, but they'd had the report on your actions in Zoness as well. No footage, just the sighting of you, an interview by one of the people in the building you'd crashed into. People suspecting drug use, but I've met drug addicts before, I can't even imagine you smoking." I laughed for a second, Falco and I definitely had a bit when we were in the academy. I was a problem case there, but only because I had no desire to be in the military and they knew that. I found solace with Falco, and eventually Slippy.

"I don't think that's your sort of lifestyle either," I said, "But I know that they're talking about me, and a lot. They want to bring me in, I don't think you want to be involved in that."

"I'd probably get into some sort of trouble if they found out I'd spent time with you, to be honest," she said, "But you saved me, I'm not gonna try to turn you in." If she had met me otherwise, would she have? Probably, because we didn't know each other, that admiration she'd had for me wouldn't go far enough to save me from a firefight with a military squadron.

"Thanks. How's Ferris doing?"

"Him and Bill were outfitted with basic ships and already returned to Corneria. Because I had unfinished business with you, I stayed behind," she said. My eyes widened for a second, shocked that she would ever stay on this base without any sort of backup. She was brave to stay here, all things considered, but it wasn't the wrong decision either, I wouldn't hurt her, and while I couldn't speak for everyone here, I don't think Wolf would let anyone go after a guest of mine anyways.

"It was that important, huh? That can't be all you had to talk to me about, then," I said, looking at her. Her fur was mostly dry at this point but this time I stood and stepped away, towards the locker room. As .I suspected, there were basic swimsuits in a variety of sizes there, to be used and kept once used. I took one in my size and changed before I returned, slipping into the water as a sudden chill brushed my spine as the water rested just above my hip. "If this conversation is gonna take much longer, we may as well at least enjoy the water while we talk."

I wasn't the greatest swimmer, I didn't really have the desire to swim to begin with, I'd always been caught up in other activities, I'd never really had the opportunity to learn how to do much more than keep myself afloat. That's I let the natural buoyancy of my body hold me as I shifted to my back, body floating on the surface of the water as my knees dipped below the water. I heard a splash as Jinx slipped back into the water, and I let out a soft sigh as I heard her swim a little closer to me before she matched my position, hovering on the surface of the water. "Just, I wanted to actually get an opportunity to talk to you, to know what's going on because this may be the only chance I get to actually talk to you with some sort of freedom. I don't think that will happen again.

"I don't think so either. Your position doesn't really lend itself to having a lunch date with a criminal." The words felt heavy, but I didn't feel the burden that they carried like I thought I would. It wasn't bad, I could tolerate who I was for now until I learned to appreciate who I'm becoming.

"If there were stability in mercenary work, I'd probably choose it too, though," she said, wistfully, "The Academy spent so much time telling me I was wrong because the sims came back poorly and the tests came back poorly but no one ever actually paid attention to what I could do," she said, "The military is all about numbers. Whoever has the better numbers gets the job, and the only reason I have half decent numbers is you." Her voice was soft, a whisper that still managed to echo in this room.

"Someone was bound to see you. Fara already had, and she was starting to push for you."

"Ms. Phoenix's word had no weight there, though."

She wasn't wrong. Fara had been pushing for months and the best that she could do was get Jinx thrown into another program, not really anything that was a safe move for her. If anyone else had been leading that program, anyone else with a different frame of mind, Jinx would've flunked out of the Academy because she didn't fly like she was supposed to. "Yeah. . ."

"They even rumored that the only reason that you noticed me in the first place was because I'd slept with you." I froze. That had come up in Fara's interview that I'd watched as well. "Those rumors started in the months leading up to graduation, once the schedules for graduation had gone out and my name was in them as receiving an award. A lot of those people had been in class with me before, used to laugh at me when I messed up the curriculum or the simulation." It wasn't out of the ordinary, though. Younger teachers got accused of that sort of thing just because they were close in age to the students. I wasn't that much older than Jinx.

"That came up in Fara's interview," I said, and I heard her stand up then.

"You know she's pregnant, right?"

"Yeah."

She let out a soft sigh at that, "Did you know before you left?"

"No."

"Good." The silence was back, for just a moment, before she waded to the edge of the pool again and slid onto the side, starting to dry off. She was looking to leave, which wasn't all that surprising. It was about time for her to go, I suppose. "I don't know if I could forgive you if you'd left her while knowing. The way you left, though, you can't go back, really."

"I will, someday. I want to be there when she's in labor. I don't know if that means I'm gonna be forced to hold an entire hospital hostage or if she'll do it in privacy or. . . I don't know, it's complicated."

"It's gonna be complicated," she said, and she stood. "If I stay too long, you'll never get actual recognition for completing the mission. Bill and Ferris can locate this base now, too, so I shouldn't stay long enough that they want to come back. I don't want them to come back with more people. . . I do appreciate everything you've done for me Fox," she said.

She paced a little, the water slipping off of her body. As I stood and started my way to the edge of the water, I smiled a moment towards her, "I know that you don't agree with what I did, I don't agree with what I did, but I had to do something," I said, and I pulled myself up and out of the water as well. She crossed her arms over her chest. "You should go, though, I don't know the base well enough to get you a ship, I can get Wolf to help you."

She gave a small nod, "Thank you," and she started her way towards the locker room. I shook myself out a little bit, letting out a soft exhale before I turned towards my locker room. When I went in and went ahead to change, I quickly retrieved my comm and opened a channel with Wolf. It took a few moments before he opened his link and I turned towards the faint image of it.

"Good morning?" he says. I didn't actually know what time it was, but he looked like he'd jut woken up. Space had a tendency to do that, the days were only able to be marked by your own body's circadian rhythm, but there was no real way to figure out if your circadian rhythm was off. Even if you only shifted an hour every few days, your year was quickly thrown off because of it.

"Jinx is ready to go," I said, smiling softly, "I'm okay, too," I said, looking at the camera. He was out of it, him not asking wasn't a huge deal right now.

"Okay. Give me a few minutes. I can help her get a ship to go," he said. I exited the locker room.

"Thanks, Wolf," and I closed the comm link. I turned, though. That meant that Jinx had stayed overnight just to talk to me, maybe more than a day. She really did have to go, because every hour that she was here was something that was going to push them towards coming back to Sargasso. As I stepped back out, she was waiting there, back in a uniform. She didn't look unlike Katt did, actually. She would break some hearts when she decided to start going that route. "Did you stay over night?"

"Yeah, you weren't awake, yet. . . It's been 2 days, actually, they left yesterday morning." I was doing a piss poor job of handling these tasks and recovering afterwards. I'd taken so many missions and been able to sleep it off in 3-4 hours, but my body wasn't handling it as well. . . I guess when I'd first started I'd been like this too, I just had to adjust again.

"I'm sorry I was out for so long," I said, "But it was nice to talk to you." My tone was soft, I knew this was probably the last good interaction we'd have. I doubt I'd be in the good graves of Corneria any time soon. She gave a soft nod, and I heard footsteps behind us. I turned, there was Wolf. He hadn't really bothered getting dressed, just wearing a pair of black boxer briefs that hugged his hips. I blushed, but that topic had never come up in the conversation anyways, so I didn't feel the need to make it any more known than it had to be.

Wolf gestured towards the docking bay, and as Jinx turned and started walking, he planted a soft kiss against my cheek before he forged forwards. I followed suit, slipping down the hall before we were into the bay and I peered through the wide array of ships. Wolf walked down the line of ships before he came to one that wasn't currently in use, a refurbished ship from the Cornerian military. It flew straight, it had decent weapons, it was more than she'd need to get her back to Corneria, to be safe.

"Once I'm back, I'll push through the completion for the mission and make sure you get paid on time," she said, and she gave a soft sigh as she ran her hand over the ship for a few seconds. It was covered in marks, more than I had on my Arwing, and she traced through them before she whispered and the hatch opened. She pulled herself up and slid into the cockpit, latching herself in before she looked over the two of us. She smiled and closed the hatch, and we both stepped back.

My hand wrapped around Wolf's hip as we stood, close, her ship pulling up and away and I turned towards him, the look of happiness draining quickly. "What the fuck is going on with Leon?"

"What happened?

–

 _I feel comfortable with where this is right now. I'd had some doubts about some of the earlier chapters, but I'm looking to work on development. Leon is a big target right now, especially since Leon tends to be an enigma. Also, expect some dynamic between Wolf and Fox in the context of James as well as some more looks into who Wolf is and where he came from. Storytelling Wolf is best Wolf after all._


End file.
